A Killer From The Past
by koolkat1203
Summary: After finding two teenagers murdered in cold blood, Mac makes it his solemn vow to find whoever did it. As he investigates, he soon discovers the killer knows who Mac is. Can Mac find out who it is in time, or will he fall victim to this person?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all! This is my first CSI: NY fic. It's indeed on of my favorite shows, so of course I had to try my hand at writing about it. I hope you all enjoy! And reviews are welcomed;-)**

"_You've got a phone?!"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Call 911, tell them a man's been shot!"_

Mac squeezed his distraught eyes shut as he kept hearing a gun shot ring through his head…The gun shot that he wasn't prepared for…The gun shot that gave him this horrible brain disorder…The gun shot that almost took his life.

Slowly he opened his eyes and stared at his Ipad beneath him. Pictures of things such as a cat, a ball, a phone, a chair…all things that were lost to him. Closely, he stared at the picture of the cat, remembering that it was something that meowed and purred, but what on earth was it called?

After a few frustrating minutes, he slid the Ipad across his desk and sunk his face in his hands, trying not to let his emotions get the best of him. How was he going to be able run a crime lab when he didn't even know what a common household pet was or what color the sun was? All he knew that if he couldn't fix this soon, then retirement may come sooner than he had planned.

"But can I really give all of this up?" he said out loud to himself.

"What exactly are you giving up?"

Startled, Mac looked up only to be greeted by Christine's beautiful smile that seemed to fill the whole room with warmth, as well as his heart. It was a feeling he hadn't felt since he was with Claire and a feeling he never thought he would feel for anyone else after Claire had passed away. While Claire would indeed always be the love of his life, he still felt intense feelings for Christine, maybe even love. Could he really be in love again?

Snapping back to reality, Mac rose from his desk chair and returned a smile as he made his way over to her, glad to have a distraction from his frustrating word games.

"Oh nothing, just talking to myself. It uh, has to do with a case I'm working on," he lied, as he took her hands into his.

"Well I hope you're not working too hard because I have something I wanted to ask you," she said.

"I'm all ears. Ask away."

Hesitating a moment, she looked down at their hands intertwined together, briefly removing one of hers to gently place her hair behind her ear before continuing. "Well a friend of mine has a beach house not to far from here, and she's going to be out of town this weekend. So I thought maybe you and I could go and have a romantic weekend there. You know, moonlit walks on the beach, walking up to the sounds of the ocean instead of traffic and people, making love on the beach…"

"Wow," was all Mac could manage to say as he tried to hide the redness his cheeks.

Cringing, Christine overlapped their hands as she stared down at them. "Wow good or wow bad?"

Placing his forefinger under her chin and gently lifting her head up, Mac smiled. "Defiantly good. You just took me by surprise there for a minute. But I love the idea. I could use a couple days away from here."

Christine smiled as Mac gave her a kiss that made her heart melt. "Well now I think it's my turn to say wow."

"Why's that?"

"Because I thought I would practically have to kidnap you before you agreed to leave this place for a couple days, especially since you were gone from here for six months straight."

Mac sighed, and glanced over at his Ipad sitting on his desk. "Yeah well, I just feel that a couple of days without any worries sound good to me right now."

"Well okay, it's settled then. How about I meet you back here tomorrow night after work and we'll head out?"

"Sounds good," he replied, giving her another peck on her lips.

"I can't wait to get you on that sand."

With a giggle she wrapped her arms around his neck as he smiled at her. She then leaned in towards him and engaged him in another kiss, this time neither of them letting up. As she held on tighter to him, the world around him soon became blurry as he felt her body up against his. He then felt himself backing up into his desk as the kiss between them soon became more passionate by the minute. For the first time in weeks, he wasn't thinking about his brain disorder or his work worries, he was just in the moment, feeling happier than he had felt in a long time.

"Hey, Mac we have a- Oh…Uh excuse me, sorry."

Suddenly bringing himself back to reality, Mac and Christine quickly parted from one another. Standing behind them was Jo, who looked not only uncomfortable, but a little red in the face as well.

"Uh, no it's okay, Jo. Christine was just coming by to tell me something."

Clearing her throat, Christine nodded. "Uh yeah, and now I'm done and I'll be leaving you guys to your police work. I'll see you later," she finished as she gave him a quick kiss.

Mac then watched as she quickly walked out of his office, soon leaving an awkward moment for him and Jo to share.

After a moment of silence, Jo couldn't help but smile. "Boy I guess Danny was right, we really do need some do not disturb signs around here."

Mac grinned as Jo began to chuckle, and replied. "Very funny. So speaking of disturbing, what'd you need to tell me?"

"Oh nothing, just that we have a homicide we need to get to," she replied, trying to stifle a laugh.

"Alright, let me just grab my coat."

"Oh you mean she didn't throw it across the room during your 'heated' discussion?" Jo asked with a laugh.

Throwing his coat on, Mac smiled. "Ha, ha very funny. Let's just get to this homicide shall we?"

"Well let's just hope this case is a quick one, cause I'm sure Christine would love to finish what you guys started."

"Oh just hush…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

About twenty minutes later, Mac and Jo pulled up to the crime scene before them. Yellow tape, several red and blue lights flashing, blood pouring over the cool cement…It was something Mac had unfortunately witnessed too many times. More times than he should have. He just never understood how someone could take another person's life in cold blood. Even when he's had to take lives in order to save others he still always felt guilt creep upon him. Taking a life was something he was never going to get used to. He just wished that other people could feel the same way he did.

He slowly made his way over to the scene, lifting up the yellow crime scene tape which allowed him and Jo to go through. Feelings of rage soon turned into feelings of sadness when he layed his eyes on the victim. It was a young girl, approximately around sixteen years old, with deep cuts and bruises all over body, along with a gunshot wound on her petite stomach. She was wearing a black skirt that came right up above her knees along with a light blue button up blouse and black open toed high heel shoes. She had auburn hair that flowed out from underneath her, making her beauty complete and making her death seem all the more tragic.

"What do we have here?" Mac asked as he set his kit on the ground.

Approaching him with a notepad in his hand, Flack spoke up. "This is Lisa Adams. She's fifteen years old and lives here in Manhattan with her parents. Witnesses say that this was a dump job. A car pulled up to the sidewalk and she was pushed out here."

"Did anyone get a good look at the car or get the license plate?"

"All I got was it was black and sporty."

"That ought to narrow it down," Mac replied, annoyed.

Flack nodded. "Yeah no kidding."

"Well if we can't get the witnesses talking, then we'll just have to see what she tells us and stop at nothing to make sure that we find that little black car, and that we find it fast…."


	2. Chapter 2

Sadness…Something that Sid Hammerback felt every time he would have to do an autopsy on a young kid, and something he would never get used to. He stood there a moment staring at the pale, young girl and with a slight sigh, he connected his glasses together and began to work on her. First, he slowly removed each article of clothing, being careful not to let any evidence get away from him. After slowly gripping the bullet out of her fresh wound and placing it aside, he then carefully washed her long flowing hair and then moved on to her body, making sure to especially be careful around the gunshot wound that claimed her short life.

After about an hour of examining her and cleaning her up, something suddenly caught his eye towards the back of her neck. He slowly moved her head slightly to the left and brushed her hair away from it as he leaned in with his magnify glass and looked at what he saw closely. It looked like a number tattooed on her skin and upon closer inspection, he determined it was a tattoo of a hundred dollar bill. Confused, he grabbed a camera and captured the image, soon hearing footsteps coming towards him as he finished.

"What do you have for me, Sid?" Mac asked, as he approached him.

"Well, the official COD is that gunshot wound on her abdomen there," Sid informed him, pointing to it.

Mac nodded silently, still saddened by what happened and more determined than anything to catch whoever had done this. "Okay, anything else?"

"Uh yes, here's your bullet," he replied, handing him a round plastic container with the bullet inside. "And I saved the best for last."

Mac grinned. "You always do."

Mac then followed Sid over by the top half of her body and curiously looked on as he brushed her hair aside and handed Mac the magnify glass. "You see that black mark on the back of her neck?"

Mac leaned down and closely examined where Sid was pointing. "It's a tattoo of a hundred dollar bill. That's odd."

Sid nodded. "That's what I thought."

"Alright, well we'll look into it. Thanks, Sid."

"No problem."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Test after test, the CSI crew were busy at work, trying to figure out who took away this young girl's life. As Lindsay and Danny closely examined her clothes, Mac was on the other side of the lab trying to figure out the make of the bullet, and Adam was in his computer lab looking at the image of the hundred dollar bill on the back of her neck, trying to see if it had any clues that could lead them to something.

"I found something," Lindsay said, holding up an orange fiber with the tweezers.

"Hm an orange fiber on a black skirt. I'd say she was celebrating Halloween a little early," Danny stated.

Rolling her eyes slightly, Lindsay grinned. "Very funny. I'm going to go try and figure out what this came from."

"Alright but hurry back, my sweet little pumpkin."

"If you're lucky, my pasty ghost."

"Pasty? Since when am I pasty?"

Lindsay replied with a quick smile over her shoulder as she walked away, leaving Danny to shake his head and continue examining Lisa's clothes for any other clues they might be able to find.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just can't leave until this is solved, I mean she was only fifteen…No, I promise, as soon as I close the case then you and I will be heading to that beach…Okay, I'll call you later. Bye."

As he tapped the end button on his phone, Mac sat back in his chair for a moment, thinking about Christine. So many of their conversations ended with a quick 'Bye', but he wanted more than that. He wanted to tell her how he felt, but couldn't get that nagging, guilty feeling out of his head that it wasn't right. He knew when he spoke to Claire as he was fighting for his life, that she approved of her and when she was alive they always told each other that if anything ever happened to either one of them that they wanted the other to love again. An idea so simple at the time because neither of them thought they would ever lose each other.

Looking up at the ceiling, he sighed. "What do I do, Claire?"

"Do you always make it a habit of talking to yourself?"

Mac's head sprung forward, only to see Jo standing in the doorway. "No, not always. Sometimes I like to talk to the voices in my head."

Grinning, Jo sat down. "So how are you doing?"

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well, no offense, but you've seemed different lately."

Mac raised his eyebrows. "Different? Different how?"

"Well just you know, a bit distant, and a bit confused."

"Jo, thank you for worrying, but I'm fine. Really."

"Come on, Mac. We're best friends. You can tell me anything, you know that. Now I'm a mom with mom instincts and I know that there's something you're not telling me. Now spill."

Mac stared at her for a moment, proceeding to lean forward in his chair. He had only known Jo for two and a half years, but he somehow felt like he had known her for longer. She seemed to have a way of telling people what they needed to hear and being there for them at the same time, something that Mac respected and the main reason why they remained such good friends.

"Alright. Well you know that me and Christine have been going together for awhile now, right?"

"Yeah, and I'm still waiting to hear wedding bells," she replied.

Smiling, Mac continued. "Yeah, well, first we need to get to the next step of our relationship."

"Which is…?"

Hesitating, Mac spoke slowly. "Well, we haven't exactly told each other uh,-

"What? That you love each other?"

Without a word, Mac nodded.

"Well Mac, what are you waiting for? I mean you've been going out with each other for eight months now!"

"It's not that easy, Jo."

"I don't know, it seems pretty easy to me."

"Yeah but there are…issues. I can't explain it."

Jo watched as she saw Mac's eyes looking at the direction of a small picture of Claire that sat on top of his desk, making everything suddenly come to light. "Mac, how long has it been since you lost your wife?"

A bit taken aback by the unexpected question, Mac looked up at her and cleared his throat before answering. "Jo, you know perfectly well how long it's been."

"I know, I just want you to say it."

"Why?"

"Just indulge me a bit. Now come on, how long?"

Hesitating for a brief moment, Mac answered. "Eleven years. Why?"

"That's quite some time."

"If you say so. To me, it'll always be like it just happened yesterday."

"It's like that for everyone who lost someone on that day, Mac. But as hard as it is, I know people have moved on and you're no exception. You can't just be single for the rest of your life because you feel like you're betraying Claire. She loved you so much that she would want you to be happy and to move on with your life. Now I know you have feelings for Christine, I've seen the way you look at her. And I know she has feelings for you, too. I mean who else would stay by someone's side for six months while recovering from being shot? Especially after only knowing you for a couple months at the time?"

Mac sat there a minute as he took in Jo's words, soon realizing that she was right. Why was he doing this to himself? He did deserve to be happy. He hadn't dated very many women after Claire passed, but of the women he did date, Christine made him feel something he hadn't felt since he had been with Claire. Alive.

"You're right. I just haven't felt this way about anyone since Claire, and I guess not only was I feeling guilty, I was scared of getting too close to someone and then losing them again."

"Yeah but as the old saying goes, 'It's better to have loved and lost than-"

"-to never have loved at all. I know. I think I'm going to tell her how I feel the next time I see her."

With a sly smile, Jo playfully squeezed Mac's cheek. "Look at you. Our little Mac Taylor is gonna take the plunge."

"Alright, Miss Nosy," Mac replied with a laugh. "You fixed me up, are you happy now?"

"Almost."

"What do you mean almost?"

"I still think there's something else you're not telling me," she stated as she gave him a subtle glare.

Mac shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing else to tell."

"Mm hm."

Nervousness crept up on Mac, as he tried to hide his emotions as best as he could. He knew he had been acting a bit off as he dealt with this brain disorder, but still couldn't bring himself to tell anyone about it yet. "Jo, I'm fine, really. Let's just focus on trying to find out who killed Lisa Adams."

"Alright, if you say so. So what did you find out about the bullet?"

"Well it was from a .38 special. The problem is that there were no prints on it and we still don't have a clue as to where the primary crime scene was."

"Well I have one step closer to being able to find that out," Lindsay said, as she entered Mac's office.

"I'm all ears," Mac replied.

"Well the orange fiber I found on Lisa's skirt was made up of poplin, polyester and cotton," she said, handing her findings to Mac.

Studying the screen on the tablet, Mac got a sudden look of confusion on his face. "Okay, so what does that tell us?"

"Well those three things are very common materials in clothes such as scrubs or possibly in this case, orange prison jumpsuits."

"Huh. So our killer could be an escaped inmate?" Jo wondered out loud.

"Possibly, or a doctor or nurse," Mac suggested.

"Well that doesn't bring us any closer to finding who did it," Jo pointed out.

"No, but it's a start. We've solved crimes with less before, so we'll solve this one."

Their attention was soon directed towards Mac's office door as they saw Danny enter with a noticeable sadness written on his face. "Uh, hey, Lisa's parents are here to identify her body."

His heart dropping to his stomach, Mac nodded. "Okay. I'll be right there."

"I'll come with you," Jo offered

Lindsay and Danny watched as Mac and Jo made their way towards the morgue, soon following with a sigh from Lindsay.

"You okay over there?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I just can't imagine having to go through something like that. I mean what if that was Lucy? I would probably go insane."

This time it was Danny's turn to sigh, as he put a comforting arm around his wife and replied. "You and me both. Which makes it all that more logical that we enjoy the time we do have with her, and pray that she'll stay safe."

"Yeah well unfortunately this job makes me more afraid with each passing day."

"I know. That's why we need to do everything we can to figure out who did this to Lisa and why, so her parents can have a shred of piece, and we can put one more killer behind bars where they belong."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cold, dark, depressing…These are the words that ran through Mac's head as he and Jo approached the morgue. As they rounded a corner, they soon stopped in their tracks when they saw a man and a woman standing by the window that looked into the morgue itself. They both seemed to be in a daze as they stared at the window with empty eyes, which had tears flowing freely down their faces. One of the worst moments a parent can go through and it was happening to them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Adams? I'm Detective Mac Taylor and this Detective Jo Danville," he told them.

Still clinging onto one another, they both turned their heads briefly to look at Mac and Jo. Mr. Adams nodded as he wiped his tear-stained eyes and then looked back towards the window.

"Is that our daughter in there? Is that our Lisa?"

"We're pretty certain, but we need you to confirm that for us," Jo replied.

"Let's just get this over with. I don't think I can handle waiting much longer," Mrs. Adams stated, wiping a tear that had fallen freely down her cheek.

"Okay. You ready?"

Without a word, they both nodded, prompting Jo to nod towards Sid. Slowly, Sid removed the white sheet from Lisa's face, soon resulting in the couple collapsing to the ground screaming in agony and pain.

Trying to hold back their own tears, Jo and Mac looked with sadness at the scene before them, neither of them understanding how anyone would be cruel enough to take the life of this young, innocent girl and bring a family to its knees.

After a few minutes, their screams soon turned silent, as they both sat and held one another with looks of numbness on their faces. Mac then slowly approached them, having to ask the questions that needed to be asked.

"Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Adams, I know this is a very hard time for you, but I need to ask you some questions so we can find out what happened to your daughter."

Mr. Adams nodded. "Go ahead."

"Did Lisa have any enemies that you knew of? Maybe someone who harassed her at school or outside of school?"

"No," Mrs. Adams replied as she shook her head. "No one that we knew of."

"How about her family? Anyone she didn't get along with?"

"You think someone in our family could have done this?!" Mrs. Adams asked with sudden rage filling her voice.

"Well we have to explore all possibilities, Mrs. Adams," Mac pointed out.

Suddenly from out of nowhere, Mrs. Adam's hand came up and made contact with Mac's face, nearly making him fall backwards. As Jo held on to Mac, her eyes then met with Mrs. Adams, showing something different than sympathy.

"Mrs. Adams, I understand that you're upset, but we're just trying to get to the bottom of your daughter's murder. Now since you're upset we'll let this little incident go, but the next time I see you assault an officer of the law then I won't hesitate to throw the handcuffs on you, got it?"

Her eyes welling up with fresh tears, Mrs. Adams nodded as she looked down at her hands. "I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I don't know what came over me. Please forgive me."

Rubbing his reddened face, Mac replied. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

A few seconds later, Mac heard the sudden ring of his phone in his pants pocket. He pulled it out with his other hand and tapped the answer button as he made his way around the corner for some relative privacy.

"Taylor…Oh no, where?…Alright, we'll be right there."

"What's going on?" Jo asked as she approached him.

"We have another homicide. Flack needs us there right away."

Jo sighed. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

More flashing lights, more yellow tape…more blood. The same scene over and over was now starting to become a nightmare for Mac as he made his way out of his car and approached the scene ahead of him.

As he looked down at the victim, he got a sickening feeling in his stomach as he saw another young person sprawled out on the ground below him. This time it was a teenage boy, who looked around the same age as Lisa. He had short, brown hair and had jeans and a t-shirt on along with expensive looking sneakers on his feet. Why? Mac asked himself. Such a waste.

"So what have got here?" Jo asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"The kid's name is Matt Watson, age sixteen. He too, lives here in Manhattan with his parents and he too was shot in the abdomen," Flack informed them.

Mac stood there silent for a minute. "Looks like we have a serial killer on our hands."


	3. Chapter 3

"You got anything for me, Sid?"

Sid looked up over the rim of his glasses at Mac and hesitated a moment before answering him. "Yeah…"

Confused, Mac responded. "Okay, than let's have it."

"Okay, well you're definatly dealing with a serial killer here. The bullet I pulled from the victim's stomach looks like it matches the one I pulled from Lisa Adams. And also…well, he seems to have the same kind of art on the back of his neck that Lisa did," he finished as he slowly moved his head to one side.

Mac got a little closer and sighed with dissapointment when he saw the same hundred dollar bill tattoo on Matt's neck. "I'd really like to know the significance of this. What do money and young people have in common?"

Sid shrugged his shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Shaking his head in disgust, Mac turned around to head back to the lab. "Alright. Well I'll let you know if I find out anything."

As Mac walked away, his attention was suddenly turned to a women's voice screaming just outside of the morgue. Curious, he quickly made his way over in that direction and saw a distraught women with tears flowing down her face make her way towards the morgue doors, Jo despratly trying to hold her back.

"Mrs. Watson, please just calm down. We can't let you in there while his autopsy is being performed!"

"NO! Get off me! I need to see if that's my son!"

In a final attempt to keep her away, Jo placed her hand on Mrs. Watson's shoulder, suddenly receiving an elbow to her ribs, making her double over in pain.

Before he knew it, Mac's feet raced over to them, trying to bring about some peace. "Whoa, whoa, whoa ma'm I need you to calm down," he stated, standing in front of her.

"No, not until I see if that's my son in there!"

"Okay, okay, relax. I'll go speak with the doctor in there and see what I can do but you need to calm down you understand me?"

Without saying a word, she nodded, leaning against the wall.

"You okay?" Mac asked, as Jo rubbed her side.

"Yeah, I'll live. But I think for our future safety you and I need to stay away from grieving mothers from now on."

With a grin, Mac nodded his head in agreement. "Agreed. I'll go talk to Sid and see if he's started the autopsy yet."

Mac then made his way into the morgue, just as Sid was getting his tools ready to cut into him.

"Whoa, Sid, can you hold off on that for a minute?"

"Yeah sure," Sid replied, putting the saw down. "Why, what's going on?"

"Matt Watson's mother is here to id the body and she's a bit frantic."

With a sigh, Sid nodded. "I understand. I'll move him over by the window."

"Thanks," Mac replied, walking out.

"What'd he say? Can I see him?!" Mrs. Watson asked frantically.

"Yes. Just follow me over to this window."

As Mac, Mrs. Watson and Jo made their way over to the window, Mac couldn't help but feel discouraged. Why were these young lives being taken? It was a question he wished he didn't have to ask, and a question he hoped to find answers to very soon.

"Okay, you ready, Mrs. Watson?" Jo asked.

Letting her tears speak for her, Mac took one look at her and then at Sid, giving a simple nod. Sid then pulled back the white sheet, soon reveiling her son's face.

Without a word, Mrs. Watson put her hand on the window, looking as if she was in a trance. "Matt? Oh no…My sweet boy…Why? Why?"

She then collapsed to ground, sobbing, with her face buried in her hands. As Jo leaned down to comfort her, she exchanged a look with Mac, both of them knowing without a doubt that they had to catch this person, no matter what it took.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"No, I have no comment on that. Next question."

A couple days later, Mac was standing outside of the station in front of a swarm of reporters, who were trying as well as he was to get some much needed answers on the recent killings of the two young kids.

"Detective Taylor! Do you have any ideas as to who may have done this?"

Mac shook his head at the reporter, and responded. "No, not at this time. Look, all I can say at this point is that the NYPD is hard at work on this and hope to have some answers soon. And I just want to give a message to parents and teens out there to be careful. At this point it seems that we have a serial killer on our hands. So until he or she is apprehended, I advise for everyone to be extremely careful. Especially those of you with kids. Thank you."

Rushing inside, he left the questioning reporters outside and stood there for a moment trying to collect himself.

"Hey Mac," Sheldon said, walking up to him. "This came for you."

Curious, Mac accepted the brown package that Sheldon handed him. No return address, just Mac's name in bold letters. He then opened it slowly, getting a bit nervous at the thought of what could be inside. As he tore the tape apart, he gave one last look to Sheldon and with a deep breath he opened up the flaps of the box and peeked inside.

Shocked and confused, Mac reached his hand inside, pulling out several hundred dollar bills, covered in blood.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" Sheldon asked, confused.

Without saying a word, Mac then pulled out a note, his eyes growing wider as he read each word on the page. "I don't think this is a joke."

He then handed the note over to Sheldon, who looked just as freaked out as he read it:

**You may not know me but I know you Detective Taylor. I will have my revenge soon. Until then you're going to know what it's like to lose people taken before they should. See if you can stop me…**


	4. Chapter 4

Dusting, poking, picking…the CSI crew were hard at work looking through the dollar bills, box and note for any clues that might lead them to who sent it. After about five hours of searching, they had come up with nothing, making Mac to his wits end.

"I can't believe this, there's gotta be something!" Mac shouted in anger.

"I don't know, this guy is good, Mac," Danny replied.

"Yeah, but we're better. No matter how good they may think they are, they always leave some sort of clue and we're not going to rest until we find it!"

Jo then watched with worry as Mac stormed out of the lab and into his office, sitting down in his chair with his face buried in his hands. "Uh, I'll be right back," she told Lindsay, walking out the door.

Cautiously, Jo opened the door to Mac's office, slowly making her way inside without so much as a flinch from Mac. "Mac? You alright?"

With a sigh, Mac turned to look at Jo. "I'm fine."

"Really? You could've fooled me."

"Jo, just drop it. I said I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"What's it to you?"

Her mouth slightly dropped, Jo leaned down on his desk until she was in direct eye contact with him, letting him know that she wasn't playing around. "What's it to me? Listen to yourself! I feel like I don't even know you anymore. Ever since you've come back to work, something's been different about you. You're more distant, you lose your temper and you're lying to everyone who cares about you! Now I don't know what's going on but either tell us or quit it with the attitude!"

As if a spark was lit under him, Mac shot up from his chair, anger evident within his eyes. "You know what, I'll act how I want to act. In case you haven't noticed there are two kids who just died and apparently whoever's doing it is out to get me! That good enough for you, Miss Nosey?!"

Standing there as if she had just been slapped in the face, Jo fought back the tears that threatned to form, and responded with anger and frusteration in her voice. "You know what? You might as well have died in that hospital. Because the Mac Taylor I knew and worried about in that hospital is gone. And I don't know who this is, but I don't like him. Not one bit. So do me a favor and let me know when the old one is back. Otherwise, I'm done."

In rage, Jo stormed out of his office, leaving a stunned Mac behind. Had he really changed that much?

With a sigh, Mac sat back down at his desk. "What's wrong with you, Mac? This isn't you."

As he pondered his thoughts, his eye caught his ipad. He turned it on, suddenly brought to the last thing he was doing on it, which was naming certain colors. Why was he acting this way? Jo, Christine and all of his friends were there for him during his six months of recooperation and now he was shutting them out.

He then turned his attention to Claire's picture on his desk and gently rubbed his thumb across it. "Maybe I should've just gone with you. I don't feel like I belong here anymore. What do I do, Claire?"

"Mac! We got something!" Lindsay said, rushing in Mac's office with Danny.

Snapping out of his trance, Mac sat up. "I'm all ears. What'd you find?"

"Well we didn't see it before because it was faded, but I managed to bring up the print that was on the side of the box, and the company that the box is from is an abandoned warehouse over on Lexington and third."

"Good work, Lindsay. Let's go!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Okay, now we don't know what kind of situation we're walking in to, but we need to proceed with extreme caution. This guy's already killed two kids and threatned me, and there's no telling what he could do next. Now let's move!"

Upon Mac's order, Mac, Jo, Lindsay, Danny, Flack and some uniformed officers slowly and cautiously made their way inside the building, looking out for any signs of trouble. As they went further in, Mac's attention was suddenly brought to little drops of blood trailing along the hard cement floor, leading them to a big room with glass windows and the strong scent of bleach filling it.

"Bleach. He must've covered up something," Flack said.

Holding out her flashlight, Jo looked through the reflector on it, scanning over the floor and walls. "Well, looks like our killer missed some spots, cause these are certainly blood spots."

"This must be our primary crime scene," Mac pointed out. "Alright, let's start proc-"

But before he could finish his sentence, Mac was interrupted by a hail of gunfire shattering the windows and bringing everyone down to the ground….


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you so much for the reviews, I really appreciate them! I apologize for the last chapter and this chapter being kind of short, but that's just kind of how it ended up otherwise I'd have extremely long chapters, lol. But I hope you enjoy this chapter and I promise you the next chapter will be longer!:) **

After the gunfire stopped, Mac opened his eyes slowly and looked around at the scene before him. Glass was shattered everywhere, along with pieces of wood from the wooden crates around them. As he looked at his friends lying on the ground, his heart jumped into his stomach, wondering if they were all okay.

"Guys? Is everybody alright?!"

Worry soon turned into relief when he saw everyone starting to stir. He then slowly started to bring himself up off the ground, when his attention was brought to a warm sensation on his face. Placing his hand on the side of his face, he sighed as his fingers became drenched in blood. Realizing it was a cut from the glass and not a wound from a bullet, he shrugged it off and continued to make his way over to his colleagues, who all were now mostly standing up on their own, making Mac sigh with relief.

"You guys alright?" he asked, as he rushed over to them.

"Yeah we're good, boss," Danny replied, as he put his arm around Lindsay, who nodded in agreement.

"Good. You guys alright?" he shouted to the uniforms.

As they all nodded, Mac looked around, noticing not everyone was there. "Wait, where's Don and Jo?"

"I don't know, I didn't see where they ended up," Lindsay said.

Frantically, Mac looked around, his eye soon catching Flack's feet behind a crate. Without another thought, Mac raced over to him, his eyes widening as he saw Jo lying underneath him.

Placing his hands on him, he knelt down and felt for a pulse, relieved when he found one. "Don! Don, you okay?!"

With a slight groan, Flack opened his eyes and had a look of confusion written on his face as he looked up at Mac. "Yeah, I think so. What am I-"

Suddenly noticing that Jo was underneath him, he sat up quickly, looking down at her, who was unconscious. "Jo?! Jo, can you hear me?!"

His heart racing, Mac ran over to the other side of her, feeling for a pulse, relieved again when he found it. His eyes then darted frantically up and down her body, looking for signs of a gunshot wound, soon finding one on her upper shoulder. Tearing off his dress shirt, Mac crumpled it into a ball, and set it aside.

"Help me turn her over," he said, placing his hands on her.

Still in a bit of a daze, Flack nodded as he helped Mac gently turn her, soon receiving a low groan from her. Grabbing his shirt, Mac pressed it onto her wound, as she started to come around.

"Officer down! Call for a bus!" he yelled out to anyone who would listen.

"Uh, Mac?"

Mac's attention was soon brought towards the direction of Flack, whose hands were covered in blood, covering a gunshot wound that had made its way on his leg.

"Okay, just relax. Take off your tie," Mac replied.

Confused, Flack ripped off his tie. "Now what?"

"Tie it around your wound there, and tie it tight."

Doing as he was told, Flack wrapped it around his leg pulling it as tight as his strength would allow him, along with a scream of agony.

"Ah! Son of a bitch!" he screamed, tying it off.

Focusing back on Jo, Mac gently brushed her hair from her forehead, trying to get her to wake up and speak to him. "Jo?…Jo, can you hear me?"

Mac then heard another groan from her, soon following with her opening her eyes. Confused, her eyes darted around the room and then landed on Mac, who was looking down at her with concern written in his eyes.

"Mac? What happened?"

"Somebody shot at all of us and you were one of the unlucky ones. But it looks like it's just a small wound in your shoulder, so you should be fine."

"Oh you mean you actually care?"

Taken aback by her sudden abrupt comment, Mac responded. "What are you talking about?"

"Never mind. Forget it."

As if a light had gone off in his head, Mac realized what she meant. She was obviously still upset from the way he had treated her earlier, something he himself was not proud of. Why was he pushing away the people who cared about him the most?

Right then and there he decided that that was going to change. After worrying for that brief second that his friends were possibly killed, he couldn't bare to make any of them hate him. That wasn't what he wanted or needed in life.

"Jo, listen, I'm really sorry for what I said earlier. I didn't mean to push you away. You're one of my closest friends and I love you. And right now, I want to make sure that you're alright."

Responding with a half smile, Jo looked up at Mac with hope in her eyes. "Now that's the Mac Taylor I know. And it's nice to know that it only took me getting a bullet in my body in order for you to come to that conclusion."

Mac chuckled, relieved that she still had her sense of humor. "I'm sorry. I promise next time you won't have to go to that extreme. And I promise I'll tell you what's been bothering me once you get out of here."

"Sounds good," she replied, as she winced in pain.

Concerned, Mac looked around, seeing no signs of help. "Where's that ambulance?!"

"It's on its way. Don't worry it should be here at any second. As a matter of fact, I'll go wait for it outside," Danny offered.

"Be careful, Danny. Our shooter could still be out there," Mac warned him, as he watched him run out of the building.

"I don't understand this, why would somebody shoot at us?" Lindsay wondered out loud.

Mac shook his head. "I don't know. But I'm not going to stop until I find out."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

About twenty minutes later, Mac, Lindsay, Danny and some uniformed officers were standing at the entrance of the building across the street. Jo and Flack had been taken to the hospital, both expected to make full and speedy recoveries, much to everyone's relief.

Making sure his bulletproof vest was on tight, Mac took out his gun and got everyone else's attention. "Alright, now based on our calculations, this had to have been the building the shooter was shooting from. And my guess would be that it was coming from the top floor. Now this person shot at cops, so they are extremely dangerous. Proceed with extreme caution and stay alert. Now let's go."

With Mac's last words, everyone nodded and with guns in hands, proceeded inside the building. Spotting stairs ahead of them, Mac led everyone slowly up them, keeping their eyes open for anyone who might be waiting for them. Soon reaching the top floor, everyone fanned out, looking around for anything or anyone that might harm them.

After several unsuccessful minutes, Mac's attention was suddenly brought to some shell casings over by the window, which was open. Slowly walking over to it, he looked out the window, seeing a perfect view of the room they were all just in. He then knelt down and picked up a shell casing, knowing that they came from a machine gun. Setting it back down with a sigh, something on the window sill suddenly caught his eye. It was a message written in blood, definitely meant for Mac's eyes:

**Hope you had as much fun as I did. Déjà vu is a blast.**

Squinting his eyes in confusion, Danny placed his hand on Mac's shoulder as he peered over it, trying to see what he saw. "Déjà vu? What the hell is this guy talking about?"

Mac shook his head. "I don't know, but he defiantly knows who I am."


	6. Chapter 6

Flash after flash lit up the room as Sheldon took pictures of the crime scene they were standing in. Adam and Lindsay were dusting for prints, while Danny was bagging up the abandoned shells that were scattered on the floor by the window.

Filled with worry and confusion, Mac stood there deep in thought wondering who could have done this and why. It was obviously the same person who had killed their last two victims, but how would they also know Mac? And what was the connection with the money, tattoos and the age of the victims?

"You okay, Mac?" Sheldon asked, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Mac pressed his lips together, and sighed as he stared at the scene before him. "No, not really. Someone is killing kids and they know me, and obviously wants revenge for something that I have no clue of what I did."

"I know, but don't worry. We won't quit until we figure out who did this. I promise."

Mac nodded. "I know. The next few days are gonna be long."

"I'm ready," Sheldon said.

"Me too."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the rest of the crew was busy in the lab, Mac was busy going over his old cases, trying to figure out who could possibly be doing this to him. After a long while with no leads, Mac threw a folder on his desk he had just been viewing and leaned back in his chair with a frustrating sigh.

"Anybody home?"

Startled, Mac looked up, only to see Christine standing in the dorrway with a bag of food in her hand. "Hey you. What brings you down here?"

"Well, after hearing about the shooting from a complete stranger instead of my boyfriend, I was a little concerned," she replied, sitting the bag down on his couch.

"I'm sorry," Mac responded, as he got up from his desk. "I was just so determined to catch whoever did this, that I didn't think to call you."

"Maybe so, but try to remember next time. Any time a shooting occurs that you're involved with I'm going to be scared out of my mind. And obviously you didn't come out of it completely unharmed," she replied, touching the bandage that covered the cut on the side of his face.

"It's nothing, just a cut from the glass. And I know since I got shot that you're going to be extra worried about me, but I'm a cop. There are going to be times when I'm around people shooting at me."

Looking down at her hands, she sniffed as a single tear made it down her cheek. "I know. But I don't know if I can handle that. You mean too much to me. I don't want to lose you."

Without a word, Mac caressed her cheek, wipping the tear away that fell and looked into her eyes. "You're not going to lose me. I promise. You're one of the most important things in my life and I don't intend on giving that up so easily."

"You really mean that?"

"I do," Mac replied as he gently took her hands into his. "I love you, Christine."

Shocked, Christine's eyes widned at the words that caressed her ears. The words that she had been longing to hear from him for so long, and the words that she wanted to say to him for so long. Both so afraid. Both so hesitant. But now here they were. They had finally been said and she couldn't be happier if she tried.

"What did you just say?"

"I said…I love you. I know I should've said it a long time ago, but I'm saying it now. I love you and I want to be with you."

With his final words, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, letting her know how sincere he was. Putting her arms around his neck in response, she kissed him back passionately and without hesitation. After a minute they slowly parted, both slightly out of breath, but happy.

"I love you too, Mac," she replied with a smile on her face. "Promise me you'll never leave me."

"I promise," he replied, giving her another kiss.

"Uh, hey- Oh uh, sorry I can come back later," Adam said, walking into Mac's office.

Startled, they both suddenly parted, slightly red in the face.

"Uh no it's okay, what have you got for me, Adam?" Mac asked.

With a sly grin, Christine picked up her purse and slipped it on her shoulder. "Uh, I'll just leave you two to your police business. There's some fresh tortellini with marinara sauce in the bag. I know you're busy, but please try to eat some of it."

Mac smiled. "I will, don't worry."

"Okay," she replied, giving him another kiss. "I'll see you later. I love you."

"I love you too," he replied, giving her another kiss.

Adam watched as she walked out of the room, noticing the way they looked at one another, and grinning like the child he was inside, because of it.

"Wow," Adam said.

"What?" Mac asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Well I just didn't think this day would come where you told another woman how you felt about them. I mean I know you and Christine were close, but still I mean we were all a little weary. Cause no offense Mac, we love you but you do have a bit of a hard shell on you. You know I used to have a cousin like that and he-"

Being used to Adam's ramblings, Mac sighed, soon interrupting him. "Adam, let's just keep this between us for right now, alright?"

"You got it, boss."

"Now what did you need to tell me?"

"Oh, yeah, uh, okay so I ran the prints I had received from one of the shell casings and well, I don't really know quite how to tell you this."

"Tell me what?"

"Uh, well the fingerprints came back to someone you definetly know."

"Who?"

"Raymond Harris."

Stunned, Mac stopped dead in his tracks when he heard that name. Of course, it had to do with him! The shooting at the warehouse was exactly like the shooting that took place at the lab just the year before. But he was dead. Mac shot him and watched as the life drained from his eyes. So who on earth would be doing this, that would also knew Raymond Harris?

"Are you sure?"

Adam nodded, as he handed the tablet with his findings over to Mac. "Yup. I ran them three times."

Not sure how to feel or what to say at that point, Mac just stared at the tablet as Raymond's face stared back at him. Even knowing he was dead, the picture still made Mac just as nervous.

"Alright, I want every relative, friend, and aquaitence that had anything to do with Raymond Harris looked up and I want an answer soon," he demanded, as he handed the tablet back to Adam.

"I'm on it," he replied, running out of the room.

Leaning down on his desk, an upset Mac thought back to all the terror Raymond brought upon him and his partner Bill, from stealing his wallet, to shooting up the lab, to crashing into their car, soon after killing Bill. It was one of the worst moments of his life, to watch a man he once respected, dying in front of him.

So who on earth could be doing this now? As far as he knew, Raymond didn't have any family, and frankily didn't have many friends after spending seventeen years in prison.

Anger and frusteration building up inside of him, he knocked off some of the items on his desk, wishing there were some answers for him.

"Well that's one way of cleaning your desk. Maybe I should try that."

Mac turned around, immediately happy when he saw Jo, a sling on her arm, standing in his doorway. "Yeah maybe. So how are you feeling?"

"That's funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing," she replied, walking towards him.

"Well, it's been a rollercoaster to say the least."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I might as well tell you cause Adam already knows, and we all know how he is at keeping secrets."

"True," Jo said with a smile. "So spill. What's going on?"

"Well…I finally told Christine that I love her."

Her mouth dropping open, Jo put her good arm around Mac as she embraced him in a hug. "Ohhh, I'm so happy for you! So did she say it back?"

Grinning, Mac nodded. "Yes she did."

Wrapping him in a hug again, she practically jumped up and down with excitement. "I'm so happy for you guys. And I'm very proud of you!"

"Thanks. I couldn't be happier. Well, on the relationship front at least."

Suddenly frowning, Jo looked a bit confused. "Why? What's going on?"

"Well, we found shell casings at the building where our shooter was and the fingerprint on one of them came back to Raymond Harris."

"What?! You've got to be kidding me!" Jo asked, with her mouth dropped open.

Mac shook his head. "Believe me, I wish I was."

"But I thought you had killed him?"

"I did. This must be someone who knows him and has acess to his personal belongings."

"But the gun he shot up the lab with is in an evidence locker downstairs."

"Yeah, but apparently he must've had another one stashed somewhere. And whoever has it is out for revenge."

"Okay, so how do Lisa Adams and Matt Watson tie into this?" Jo asked, confused.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out. Listen, I'm going to go back to that building and see if I missed anything."

"Alone?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Mac, if someone is out to get you, I don't think that's such a good idea."

With a sigh, Mac nodded in agreement. "You're right. I'll have some uniforms meet me there."

"But why not just take one of us?"

"Because I need everyone hard at work, trying to figure out who did this."

"Alright, just be careful," Jo replied, with worry in her voice.

"I will, don't worry," Mac replied, walking out of his office in a hurry.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

About five minutes later, he was in his car, heading to that building, hoping he would find something there that they missed before. As he squinted at the passing lights from the other cars, his attention was especially turned to the bright lights behind him. Squinting, he tried to focus ahead, hoping if he ignored them that they would soon go away.

"Why do people have to be this ignorant?" he said to himself, sometimes wishing cars didn't have bright lights.

Trying to shrug it off he continued on, his phone soon ringing in his coat pocket. Grabbing it with one hand, he answered, making sure to keep his eyes on the road.

"Taylor."

It was Danny, who seemed excited, having just discovered something. "Mac, I think I know who our shooter slash murderer is."

His eyebrows raised, Mac responded. "I'm all ears."

"Okay, well you know that orange fiber that Lindsay found? Well I-"

But before he could finish, Mac suddenly jolted forward as the car behind him slammed into him, causing him to drop his phone. Frantically, Mac tried to straighten out, nearly hitting an on coming car. Right as he nearly succeeded, the car behind him slammed into him again, this time harder, making Mac completely lose control of the car, as it weaved in and out of traffic. Without a moment to think, Mac sat there helplessly as the car headed towards the side of a building and before he knew it, his world turned dark.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello all! Sorry it took me so long to update, it's been a crazy busy week for me! And this chapter is a little shorter than the others, but don't worry because I'll have another update before Thanksgiving as my gift to you! Enjoy!:)**

Cold…Why was it so cold? What was going on? Mac slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted with blurriness. He blinked and squinted his eyes trying to make out where he was, but all he could see was darkness. After a moment, he realized that he had a blindfold on and tried to remove them with his hands, soon noticing that they were bound together behind the back of the chair he was sitting in.

He tried to move, when his brain suddenly registered how much pain he was in, especially in his leg and shoulder. He knew his leg had to have been broken, and his shoulder was severely sprained or dislocated.

Wincing at the pain, he tried to move again, still as unsuccessful as he was before. He knew he had been in a car accident, but didn't know what happened after he blacked out. Why would someone do this to him? He knew he had enemies, but who would want to hurt him now?

As he pondered the question, he became aware to the sound of a door opening and footsteps following. He smelled a strong scent of cologne and cigarette smoke, something that made him queasy with each step that made its way closer to him.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?" Mac asked.

After a few seconds of silence, a male voice responded. "I'll ask the questions around here, Detective Taylor."

"What, are you too chicken to tell me who you are?!"

After another minute of science, Mac soon regretted his sudden outburst when a fist came in contact with his nose. Trying to hold back the scream that he wanted to let out at the sudden pain, Mac lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to calm himself down.

"You got another question to ask, or are you going to listen to me this time?" the voice asked him.

Slightly out of breath, Mac lifted his head up. "Whatever you say."

"That's what I thought. I'm glad that we finally got to do this, Detective. It's been a long time coming. And when I get through with you, you're going to wish you had died when you had the chance."

Died when he had the chance? What was that supposed to mean? Who was this?

"Is it alright if I ask a question now?" Mac asked hesitantly.

"Fine. Go ahead, but choose wisely."

"How do we know each other?"

"You don't know me, but I certainly know you."

"How?"

"I think you've asked enough for now. Why don't you get comfortable? You're going to be here for awhile."

And with his last words spoken, Mac soon heard the door close again, knowing that the only chance he had of getting out of there was his team finding him...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Okay, this is the location where I'm picking up a signal from his phone," Jo said, looking at her tablet.

After losing touch with Mac, a concerned Danny and the rest of the team were soon able to find the location of his phone that thankfully had a GPS installed on it. Soon after, Jo and Danny were following it, as Jo gave out directions to him.

"Okay, turn left here," she instructed him, as she pointed. "Are you sure that his phone didn't just lose signal or something?"

"No, I'm telling you, Jo, something's not right. I heard a lot of noise before he lost touch with me."

"What kind of noise exactly?"

"Like something being hit."

Concerned, Jo sat back in her seat. What if something did happen to him?

"Okay, we're almost there. Turn down this ally," Jo told Danny.

Danny then turned, both of their mouths soon dropping open when they saw Mac's truck come into view. The front end was smashed in and the driver's side door was wide open. Quickly pulling over, Jo and Danny made their way out of the car, both of them trying to hold back their emotions as they slowly walked up to the truck.

"Oh God…" Jo said in shock as she suddenly noticed a pool of blood on the ground.

Looking down at the same thing, Danny looked up at Jo, with concern in his eyes. "You still think I'm being paranoid?"

Suddenly as if something snapped, a look of concern soon became a look of anger, worry and determination in Jo's eyes as she stared at the pool of blood a the bottom of her feet. "I don't know who did this or why, but they don't us. He thinks he's good? We're better. And we're going to get this son of a bitch if it's the last thing we do."


	8. Chapter 8

**As promised, here's the next chapter! Thank you all for the reviews, I really appreciate them! And I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!:-)**

Dusting, searching for clues, taking pictures…The same things the team did for a countless number of other crimes was now personal and more important than anything. As much as it teared them up inside not knowing whether their boss was alive or not, they were more and more determined to go through everything piece by piece in order to find him.

"Hey Jo, can I talk to you for a sec?" Danny asked, as she swept up some of the blood on the pavement.

Sticking the cotton swab in the proper container, she nodded and followed him over to an area where no one could hear them. "What's up?"

"Look, I think I know who took him."

Shocked, Jo responded with curiousness in her voice. "Who?"

"Well, right before I got disconnected with Mac, I was about ready to tell him who I thought it was. You know the orange fiber that Lindsay found on Lisa Adam's skirt?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, she was able to find a tiny trace of sweat on it. And of course with sweat can come DNA."

"Oh man, you gotta love this job! So did you get a hit in codas?"

Danny nodded. "You'd better believe it. It came back to a Will Harris."

"Harris? You mean he's related to Raymond Harris?"

"Oh yeah. They're brothers."

"Brothers? But Raymond doesn't have any family."

"Or so we thought. It turns out he has a half brother that he had recently found out about before he died."

"Oh my God…Then he knows that Mac was the one who killed Raymond!"

"I know. And he's been in prison for the past year for armed robbery and got released early for good behavior. His record also showed that he got out of prison a week ago, which was around the same time we found Lisa Adams."

"Okay, well we still don't know why he killed Lisa and Matt, but he was defiantly the one who shot at us. And if he's the one that kidnapped Mac, he won't stop at anything to make sure he suffers for killing his brother."

Trying to hold back the tears that formed in his worried eyes, Danny nodded in agreement. "We've got to find him…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Mac? Mac don't leave me!"_

_That voice…Where was it coming from? It sounded familiar…Wait! It was Christine! But where was she? And why was he in a white room?_

"_Christine? Where are you?"_

_She suddenly appeared before him, holding out her hand, with a look of love and concern written upon her face. "Mac…Please don't leave me…I love you…"_

"_Why would I leave you?…Christine? No wait, come back!"_

_Hopelessly, he stood and watched as Christine disappeared before his eyes, leaving him with feelings of confusion and sadness. Reaching out his hand, he stood there, feeling more helpless by the minute. "Christine…Help me…"_

Like a jolt, Mac woke up with sweat pouring down his face. He still had the blindfold on, so he was greeted to darkness once again, making him feel more and more scared by the minute. He then tried to move his hands in different directions, praying that he could manage to get himself free, but after five minutes of trying, he gave up as he felt the blood run from his wrists down his arms.

His attention was soon turned to the sound of the door opening once again, the footsteps becoming louder with each step.

"Enjoying your time alone, Detective?"

"Yeah sure why not? I've always wanted to spend time in a place like this," Mac answered in a frustrated tone.

With a short laugh, the person responded, soon in an angry tone. "You know, I just love that sarcastic wit of yours, Detective. We'll just see how well you can keep your wit when I get through with you."

"Do whatever you want, but you're not going to get away with this," Mac responded with certainty.

"That's what you think."

As he listened to his last words, Mac was suddenly surprised with a sharp needle being jabbed in his upper arm. Awareness soon turned into grogginess as everything became disoriented. As he began to lose consciousness, he managed to say a quick prayer, hoping that his friends would soon find him and fast…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

One step…Two step…Three…With each step Jo took, it felt like a mile as she slowly walked down the hall towards Christine's apartment. As she got closer to it, she thought back to when she told Christine what had happened to Mac when he got shot. The worry, the sadness, and the tears that filled her eyes after she told her was something that she was never going to forget. And now here she was, getting ready to tell her that something had happened to the man she loves again, only this time not knowing whether he was dead or alive.

Noticing she was now standing in front of Christine's apartment, she hesitated as her hand poised above her door, ready to knock. Taking a deep breath, she managed to find the courage, but just as she was getting ready to knock, she was surprised by the door being open and being greeted by a surprised, but happy Christine.

"Jo! Hey, what are you doing here?"

Startled, Jo stumbled upon her words, trying to find the right thing to say. "Uh, do you have a minute?"

"Sure. I was just getting ready to go to work, but I have a few minutes to spare. Come on in," she answered, showing Jo inside.

"Thanks," Jo answered, walking inside.

"So, what brings you by?" Christine asked, shutting the door behind her.

Not sure how to bring up what happened, Jo just simply stared at her. Christine's smile soon turned into a look of worry, making her slowly sit in the chair that was beside her.

"What? Oh God, it's Mac isn't it? Something happened didn't it?"

Kneeling down in front of her and taking hold of her hand, Jo looked at her and nodded. "Yes. Mac was in a car accident and…he's missing. We think he's been kidnapped by whoever caused him to get into the accident."

Without saying a word, tears started flowing freely down Christine's face as she tried to find the words to say. "Oh God…Well you're going to find him right? Please tell me you're going to find him! We have to find him!"

With her last words, she then collapsed into Jo's arms, sobbing and screaming in agony. Soon, Jo felt the tears fall down her own face as she tried to keep her composure As she held on to Christine, she knew that she was going to stop at nothing to find him. They weren't going to lose him, not now and this way.

"We're going to find him," she said, as she held her. "I promise you, we will find him…"


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey, babe. I brought you some coffee. Thought you could use a pick me up."

A tired Lindsay looked up from the microscope she was looking through and with a sigh, accepted the steaming cup of coffee that her husband brought her. "Thanks."

Noticing how upset she looked, Danny set his coffee cup down and looked at her. "Hey, listen to me. We're gonna find him. I promise you."

"Danny, don't promise me something that you're not sure about," she replied, walking out of the lab.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey come on. Just stop," he said, as he grabbed her arm. "Look, I know you're worried. I am too, believe me. And I know we're having a hard time finding a lead, but we will, because we're the best team there is. A team that Mac trained and runs. Trust me, we'll find him."

With a silent nod, Lindsay cradled herself in her husband's arms, and sighed. "I know. You're right. I'm just so scared. I mean with the kids he murdered and the shooting and going out of his way in order to get Mac…I don't know, it just scares me. I wasn't even this scared when he got kidnapped by Drew Bedford or by that guy who took him hostage at the bank. I just have a really bad feeling about this one."

"Now you're starting to worry me," he replied, resting his chin on the top of her head.

As he held his wife, Danny couldn't help but be scared, too. What if they couldn't find Mac in time? They always took pride in the fact that they could solve almost any crime that came their way, but this was the most important crime yet. What would become of them if they lost not only the leader of their team, but their mentor and friend?

As Danny pondered his thoughts, his attention was brought to the elevator opening, with a distraught looking Jo stepping out of it. "Hey. You okay?"

Jo shook her head, as she crossed her arms. "I won't be okay until I look over and see Mac Taylor sitting at that desk," she replied, looking at his empty office.

"You and me both," Lindsay agreed. "So how did things go with Christine?"

"How do you think? I just told her that the man she loves is missing and we don't know whether he's alive or not. We've gotta find him. We just have to."

For a moment everyone sat in silence as many thoughts ran through their minds. However much they were thinking though, they still couldn't seem to find the right words to say. All they could do now was their job and hope and pray that it would lead them to finding the one person that meant more to them than anything.

"Jo!"

Startled, Jo snapped back to reality when she heard her name being shouted from the direction of the elevator. Soon she saw an equally distraught Christine running through the doors, her eyes beat red from crying, and her cheeks soaked with her worried tears.

"Christine, what are you doing here?" Jo asked.

"I can't just sit alone at my apartment, waiting for the phone to ring and I can't be around strangers today, so I closed the restaurant for the day. I want to help. Please, let me help," she asked, grabbing onto Jo's hand.

"Look, Christine, I know you're worried. We all are, trust me. But there's not much for you to do here. And I told you I would keep you informed."

"I know what you told me, but I can't wait. I'll feel better if I'm around you guys and closer to the case. Please, I'll just wait in his office."

"Oh, I don't know…"

"Jo, what if this happened to one of your kids? Would you be able to just sit around and wait?"

After a moment of thought, Jo shook her head. "No. I'd probably be doing what you're doing right now."

"Okay, then please just let me do this," Christine asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Alright. Go ahead. Just don't make a mess in there or I'll have to hear about it," Jo teased.

"I'll try," she replied, with a half smile. "Just please find him. I need to hold him again."

Wiping away a tear, Jo pulled her into a hug, trying to give her some reassurance. "I know. And you will. I promise."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_You should've left it alone, Bill…"_

"_She was an angel! She deserved better than all of this!"_

"_I stared in his eyes and I knew the truth. He didn't kill her…"_

"_And neither did I!"_

_Gunshots…Blood…Death…Bill's face….Raymond's face…It wouldn't stop…Why won't it stop? JUST MAKE IT STOP!_

Mac woke with sweat pouring down his face. His heart was beating a mile a minute and thoughts were racing through his mind. Who was doing this to them? Did they know Raymond Harris? It couldn't have been a coincidence that the warehouse they were in was shot up the same way Raymond had shot up the lab. And it defiantly wasn't a coincidence that Raymond's fingerprints were on the evidence. He knew Raymond was dead. He watched Sid perform the autopsy. So who else could be doing this? And why now, after Raymond being dead for a year?

Before he had much time to ponder his questions, he heard the door open once more and footprints approaching him again. Suddenly, Mac shivered as the door started closing. Did he just come from outside? Where on earth was he?

"Enjoy your little nap, Detective?"

Trying to find the strength to talk, Mac tried to sit up, but between his pain and weakness, it was a losing battle. "Look, what's with the blindfold? You have me tied up so tight that I can't move, my leg is broken, and my body is weak. Do you honestly think I could escape right now? And trust me, a blindfold wouldn't stop me either. I can't move. Okay? You've got me. Now why don't you man up and let me see your face. I mean I don't even know you, so what's the point? Obviously you're not going to let me live anyway. You at least owe me that much."

After Mac spoke his last words, his body automatically tensed up wondering what was going to happen to him next. He had a feeling he probably made things worse, but he couldn't help it. He had to know who took him. He just had to.

"You make an interesting point, Detective."

"I do?" Mac asked, shocked.

"Oh yeah. I mean obviously I was going to let you see who I was before I killed you, but then again, maybe it's better to let you know who I am before, so you can take awhile to think about what you've done and why I had to do this to you."

Swallowing the nervous lump in his throat, Mac sat there, feeling like he couldn't move. "Okay, then let's have it."

"Oh not so fast, Detective. You really didn't think that I would let you get away with talking to me like that, did you?"

"No, I suppose that's not in your nature."

"Damn right it's not."

Squeezing his eyes shut as he prepared for a blow to the face, he was suddenly taken aback by a sharp blinding pain in his already injured shoulder. Realizing it was a knife that had stabbed him, he groaned in agony, as he felt the breath from his captor breathing down upon his neck.

"You're in _my _house now, pal. And I'm going to make sure you get that through that thick little skull of yours. I'm gonna give you some time to let that soak in. And when I come back next time, you'd better have a complete attitude change. Got it?"

Trying not to pass out, Mac answered inbetween his staggering breaths. "Yeah, I got it."

"Good. See ya later, Detective. I've got some work to do."

A weak Mac then listened as the door opened and closed once more, and tried without success to wriggle himself free once more. Weakness soon overtook him, and as his dark world started to become blurry he managed to say one last thing before he lost consciousness once more- "Christine…Help me…."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, so I heard about the prints belonging to Raymond Harris," Sheldon said, as he walked up to Jo.

"Yeah, and it's gotta be his brother doing this, but since he just got out of prison a week ago he's been staying at different places and it's hard to trace him. So we have no clue where he could be keeping Mac," Jo answered, with frusteration in her voice.

"Okay, well maybe we should go back a little ways and figure out some other things. Like why he's been killing teenagers and tattooing them with money symbols," Sheldon pointed out.

Jo shook her head. "I don't know. I mean Raymond was in prison for laundering money."

"And Mac's old partner stole some of that money, which led to him killing Raymond's fiancée."

As they both pondered their thoughts, suddenly a light went off in Jo's head. "Wait a minute. How old was his fiancée?"

"Uh, I don't know. Around 17 or 18 I think. Why?"

"Oh my God, that's it! He knew how upset Raymond was about what happened to Miranda and how he only managed to kill Bill and not Mac."

"Yeah because Mac got to him first."

"Exactly!"

"But Mac didn't kill Miranda. Raymond knew that."

"Yeah but that doesn't matter. His brother is just seeing the fact that Mac ties into everything that happened with him and his death. And that could be why he's killing the teenagers. To make Mac feel bad about what happened since Raymond didn't get the chance to finish him off."

"And the money tattoos are reminders of the money that was stolen," Sheldon finished.

Jo nodded. "Okay well, we got that figured out. Now we need to find Mac."

"Yeah. I know…"

For a moment neither of them said a word as they sat and thought about him. If this guy had gone to all this trouble in order to get Mac, they both knew without a doubt that it was only a matter of time before he killed him- if he hadn't already.

Their thoughts were soon interrupted by Jo's cell phone ringing, making her jump about a mile where she was standing. With a quick grab, she removed it from her pocket and answered. "Hello?…Tyler, I thought you were out of town for some school thing…Well did you try calling her?…Okay, don't worry I'm sure she's at a friend's house or something. This isn't the first time she hasn't come straight home from school…Yeah, I'll check around and get back to you…Love you…Okay bye…"

"Everything alright?" Sheldon asked.

"Well not totally. Tyler said he stopped by the house to get something and Ellie wasn't there. And school let out almost two hours ago. I swear if I find out she went to some boy's house, she's going to be grounded til the end of the century," she finished as she dialed Ellie's number.

After a few rings, Ellie's voicemail picked up, leaving Jo with anger and worry. "Okay, I'm going to go call some of her friends. I'll be back."

Sheldon nodded. "I'll be waiting."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey Mr. Detective. I have a surprise for you."

Slowly, Mac opened his eyes. His pain had now become numb. His body cold. His determination to escape was now turning into a losing battle. He couldn't move and had no will to move. Now this creep wanted to toy with him some more? Why didn't he just kill him and get it over with?

"I don't want any of your surprises, " he replied, somehow managing enough strength to talk.

"You know what, I'm gonna let that rude and unnecessary comment go by, because I just happen to be in that good of a mood."

"Gee thanks," Mac responded with a groan. "So what is it?"

"Patience, Detective. Now I'm going to remove your blindfold."

"So you're going to let me see you?"

"Not yet. For now I want you to focus on my little surprise."

Shivering, Mac sat there as he waited for whatever was going to happen. Suddenly he felt the back of his blindfold being undone and slowly lifted off his head. As he adjusted his eyes, he noticed that he was in a rundown room with cobwebs, rust, and stairs- he was in a basement! But who's? And why?

Right when he had more questions to ask, he saw the back of his captor as he made his way up the stairs. All he could see was he had brown, short hair and was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt.

Without turning around, he stood at the top of the stairs and spoke without turning around. "I'll leave you and your surprise alone a minute before I tell you what I want from you. Enjoy, Detective."

He then slammed the door shut, making Mac shiver from the sudden burst of cold air that made its way inside. Confused, Mac looked around, wondering what 'surprise' he could be talking about. After a brief minute, he didn't have to worry anymore as a sudden bright light turned on, brightening the whole room.

Not used to the sudden change in light, Mac squeezed his eyes shut. After a few seconds, he opened them again, blinking a few times to adjust. As his vision became clearer he noticed what looked like a body lying across the room from him. Their face was turned towards the wall, but he could tell it was a girl, and that she was alive.

"Hey, if you can hear me then say something," Mac shouted to her.

Curiousness soon turned into fear as the girl slowly turned her head and looked directly at him, making him freeze with shock.

"Oh my God…Ellie…."


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay, I'm really starting to freak out now. I've been calling every place I can think of where Ellie might be and no one has seen her," Jo stated with a worried sigh.

"Is there a tracking device on her phone?" Lindsay asked.

Jo nodded. "Of course but I already checked and her phone is at home. Tyler said she left it there this morning when she left for school."

"Okay, well did she leave school?" Sheldon asked.

"Yeah I called and they said she left right after her last class like she always does. Oh my God what if something happened to her? She could've gotten hit by a car or-"

"Hey, don't think that. We're going to find her, okay?" Lindsay said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," Flack greeted them as he walked into her office. "I've got some uniforms out looking for her. Now when you talked to her last, do you remember her saying anything about going somewhere after school today?"

With tears building up in her eyes, Jo shook her head. "No. She actually told me she was inviting a couple friends over tonight for a sleep over. Something is wrong I just know it. She wouldn't just dissapear without telling me where she was going."

For a moment, no one spoke a single word as they all stood there deep in thought. First Mac goes missing and now Ellie? What on earth was going on? Was it connected or was it just some freak coincidence? No matter what it was, they knew they had to act fast, and find both of them before it was too late.

Flack's cellphone suddenly broke the silence with a loud ring, making everyone tense up as he answered it. "Yeah…Are you sure?…Alright, keep them there til I get there…Yeah thanks."

"What?" Jo asked. "Was it about Ellie?"

With hesitation, Flack sighed and looked at Jo. "Yeah. We just had someone come in and make a report of witnessing a kidnapping. They were looking out of their window, and saw a young girl screaming and being forced into a car. And the girl matched Ellie's description."

Feeling like the wind had just been knocked out of her, Jo sat down slowly in her chair as tears streamed down her face. "Oh God…I knew I shouldn't have started letting her walk home by herself. I knew it!"

"Jo, don't worry. If it is Ellie, then we're going to do everything we can to find her," Lindsay tried reassuring her.

Without a word, Jo looked up at Flack, her face full of worry and expressionless at the same time. "I want to go with you to talk to the witness."

Knowing it would be a losing battle to argue with a worried mother, Flack just nodded. "Sure. Come on."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ellie? Can you hear me? It's Mac."

For a moment, Mac stared at her as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room. She didn't speak a word, but lifted her head with a look of confusion written on her face. Then as if the situation finally registered, she sat up like a shot, her look of confusion soon turning into a look of fright.

"Where am I?!" she shouted frantically.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just calm down. It's okay. I'm not sure where we are. But it's okay, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

As he spoke his words, he knew the second after that it was an empty promise. How was he going to protect her when he didn't know who kidnapped them or where they were? Still, he knew how scared she must've been, and needed to try and reassure her. After all, he was a grown man and was terrified to his core, so he could only imagine how a fifteen year old would feel.

"I want my mom! Where's my mom?!" she screamed, as she started to cry.

Mac sighed, as he tried to hold back his emotions. Now that was a question he would love to know. Hopefully for both their sakes, she would be showing up soon. "I don't know, Ellie. She probably doesn't know where we are. But I promise you she's looking really hard for us. She'll find us soon."

"I'm scared," she replied, suddenly hugging her knees.

"I know you are. But at least we're here together. We can help each other," Mac pointed out.

Turning her head towards him, she shrugged her shoulders. "How?"

"Well, first of all, maybe you could untie me," Mac said, directing his head towards the back of his chair.

Looking hesitant, Ellie cocked her head to one side, just staring at him.

"What? Is something wrong?" Mac asked, confused.

"What happened to you?"

Realizing she noticed the blood on different parts of his body and clothes, he closed his eyes for a minute and then proceeded with an answer. "Whoever took us caused me to crash my car, and then…well he decided to do some more things to me once he got me in here."

"Why?"

Mac shook his head. "I don't know. I wish I knew. Apparently he blames me for something I did to him, but I don't know what."

Looking down at the hard cement floor, Ellie just stared at it as she spoke. "Why did he take me?"

Mac shook his head. "I don't know."

"Is he going to kill us?"

Mac stopped dead in his tracks. He already knew he was going to kill him. But why was Ellie there? What was the point this guy was trying to make? And if he took her like Lisa and Matt he already knew that her fate wasn't looking good either.

"I don't know," he lied, as he looked at her with sadness and worry in his eyes.

Without warning, a sudden pain shot through his side. With him having been unconscious a majority of the time he was being held captive, he just now was starting to notice a pain in his side and stomach. He knew the side pain was a broken rib or two, but the stomach pain he wasn't sure about. He had a bad feeling it was internal, and knew that wasn't good. If they weren't found soon, then they would both be dead.

Groaning at the sudden pain, Ellie ran over to him quickly, watching as he doubled over in pain. "What's wrong?!"

Sitting back up as best as he could, Mac managed to look at Ellie, as sweat poured down his face, along with a look of agony. "It's nothing. I'm fine. Just see if you can untie me."

Ellie nodded, and went towards the back of his chair, looking at his bound hands. "It's tied in a knot. I don't know if I can get this undone or not."

"Okay, Ellie, I need you to listen to me. I need you to look around the room and see if there's anything sharp you can use to cut the rope with."

"Okay," she replied as she looked around the room.

"You see anything?" Mac asked between his staggering breaths.

Suddenly, Ellie's eyes lit up as she spotted something. Without hesitation, she ran over to it and then back to Mac.

"I found a piece of a broken bottle," she replied, holding up a brown piece of glass.

Figuring it was from a beer bottle, Mac smiled. "Good girl. Now I need you to use that to cut the rope. Can you do that?"

"Yeah. I'll try," she replied, walking behind him.

But before she could start, they both jumped when they heard the door being unlocked from the outside.

"Quick, give me the glass! Just put it in my hand, and then go back over there and lay down like you were doing," Mac instructed her.

Like a flash, she placed the glass in Mac's hand, and ran over to the spot where the kidnapper had left her. The door soon opened, and footsteps were coming towards their direction. Mac's heart started racing in his chest as they came closer and closer towards him. Was this it? Was he going to kill him?

Pretending like he was unconscious, Mac tried to stay calm as he kept his head lowered and his eyes closed. It was like a nightmare that he hoped was going to end soon.

Suddenly, he felt his hair being pulled, making his head lean back. Before he had time to respond, he lost his breath as water was being dumped on him at a constant rate. After what felt like forever, he stopped, leaving Mac to cough violently and try catch his breath at the same time.

"Thought you could use something to wake you up a bit, Detective."

Finally composing himself, an out of breath Mac looked up and finally came face to face with his captor. For a split second he froze, thinking it was Raymond Harris, due to how much he looked like him. After realizing that was impossible, Mac stared at him, shivers going down his spine as the Raymond look a like stared back at him with hatred and murder in his eyes.

"Didn't your mother teach you that it's not polite to stare?" he asked in a low and scary tone.

"Who are you?" Mac asked, confused.

"Don't tell me the oh so brilliant Dertective Mac Taylor hasn't figured it out yet," he replied, as he started to pace in front of him.

"You look just like-"

"Who? My brother you killed?!"

Mac's eyes suddenly widened. "You're Raymond's brother?!"

"Congratulations, Detective. You fimally figured it out," he replied, clapping his hands together.

"I didn't think he had any family."

"Well you thought wrong. Tell me something, Detective. Did you and your partner get joy out of torturing him?"

"We didn't toture him."

"Oh I see. So killing his fiancee was what, just a contact sport?"

Pressing his lips together, Mac stared straight at him, letting him know that he meant business. "Look, I told him and now I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with Miranda's death. That was my partner. As a matter of fact, I was in the process of arresting him for it when your brother crashed into us and tried to kill us. And he succeeded in killing the guy responsible for it, so what do you want from me?!"

"How about going back in time and you not killing my brother?! How about that?!"

"Look, I wasn't intending on killing your brother. It was self defense."

"I don't give a rat's ass. The point is you killed him and now I'm going to make you sufffer the same way you made him suffer all those years. Do you have any idea what it's like to be trapped somewhere and have someone you love being hurt or killed and not being able to do anything about it?"

Mac froze. He wasn't sure what he was getting at, but he couldn't shake the bad feeling that came over him. "No, I don't. But like I said, I wasn't responsible for Miranda's death. Even Raymond knew that in the end."

"I don't care," he said walking around the room. "You know, girlfriends are a nice thing to have. I've had a couple of good ones in my day. And I certainly like blondes," he said, getting within inches of his face. "And the one that you're seeing is a real looker."

Rage filling up inside him, Mac responded with direct anger in his voice, trying to hide the shakiness that wanted to come out with it. "If you go anywhere near her, I will kill you."

"Yeah, I'd love to see how you're going to do that," he said, kicking his bad leg.

Screaming in pain, Mac took a few deep breaths as he tried to compose himself. "Look, your beef is with me, not her. Do whatever you want to me, just leave her alone!"

"Well see, I'm actually going to leave that up to you, Detective. I'm going to give you one hour to decide," he replied, suddenly grabbing Ellie by her hair, resulting in a terrifying scream from her. "You can either choose to let this beautiful young girl live, or your girlfriend. And if you haven't decided by the time I come back, then they both die. Tick Tok, Detective. Time's running out. Chose wisely."

He then threw a terrified Ellie back down to the ground, and watched as he slowly walked up to the door and gave a smirk before walking out the door. He had one hour to figure out a way to esacape. There was no way in hell he was going to let him kill either one of them.

"I don't wanna die," Ellie said, with tears streaming down her face.

"You're not going to die, I promise. No one's going to die. Not on my watch…."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, Sheldon. Where's Jo and everyone? Have they found out where Mac is yet?" Christine asked, walking into the lab.

Looking up from his microscope, Sheldon sighed and shook his head. "No. Actually, they have someone else to find now."

"What? Who?"

"Uh…Maybe I shouldn't tell you," he replied, turning to walk away.

Grabbing his arm suddenly, she gave him a pleading look. "Sheldon, come on. If it has to do with Mac, then I have a right to know."

After a moment, Sheldon nodded. "Alright. Well we're not sure yet, but it may or may not have to do with Mac's kidnapping."

"What?! What is it?!"

"Well, Jo's daughter was kidnapped a few hours ago."

"Oh my God…" she replied with her mouth dropping open.

"I know. But we don't know anything for sure yet."

"Oh God, what if he killed Mac already and just wanted a new victim?!" she said hysterically.

"Hey, come on, don't think that. We're going to find him. Mac's tough. He's been in a lot of tough situations before. He's a fighter. I mean come on, most people probably wouldn't have made it through being shot the way Mac was."

As she looked down at the floor, Christine nodded. "I know. I just hope he's okay now."

"Me too. Look, why don't you go to the ladies' room and splash some cold water on your face and I'll order us something to eat?"

"No, I couldn't possibly eat anything now."

"Christine, look, I know you're worried, we all are, but you have to keep your strength up. And you know Mac would agree with me."

With a sniff, Christine looked up at him with a half smile. "I know. Alright, I'll be right back."

Sheldon nodded as she made her way out of the lab, and turned the corner towards the ladies' room as she wiped her tear stained eyes. All she wanted was Mac's arms around her and her lips pressed against his. She finally found a man she loved with all of her heart and now that could be taken away from her in an instant.

Finally, she saw the ladie's room up ahead of her, but before she went in, she was startled by her phone ringing. With a sigh she took it out of her pocket and nearly fainted when she saw the name on the screen- Mac Taylor.

Frantically she answered it, her heart beating a mile a minute. "Mac?! Is this you?! Where are you?!"

"He's a bit tied up at the moment," an unfamiliar voice answered from behind her.

Confused, she turned around, and before she knew what was happening she felt a sudden blow to her face and in the next moment her world went dark.


	11. Chapter 11

"_Mac? Is that you?"_

_Christine's heart nearly leaped out of her chest when she saw Mac coming towards her. His hazel eyes staring at her with the love and warmth he gave to her often, and a smile on his face that continued to make her heart melt._

"_I love you, Christine…"_

"_I love you, too, Mac."_

_His smile quickly turned into a worried expression as he started to slowly fade from her. "Just hold on for me…"_

"_No wait! What are you talking about? Where are you going? I need you! Come back!"_

Sweat poured down Christine's face as she awoke with a jolt. After a minute she remembered what had happened to her and as she looked around the cold and dark room she was in, she wondered why it had happened. What would somebody want with her?

Before she could come up with an answer, a door suddenly swung open, making her heart beat a mile a minute. A tall and strong looking man slowly walked up to her and stopped inches ahead of where she was sitting.

"Well, glad to see you're finally awake, doll."

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" she asked, trying to hide the nervousness in her voice.

"You're part of my little game, that's what I want with you."

"What game? What are you talking about?"

"You'll know soon enough. But don't worry, no matter what, I'll let you know the summary of it before it ends," he stated with a slimy, conceded smile.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"I don't know. That's the fun part. It's not up to me."

Giving another smile that made her shiver, he walked out of the room, leaving a confused Christine behind. She then tried to free her tied up hands, realizing it was no use. Even if she could get untied, she had no way of escaping with the lock on the door.

Letting a scared tear roll down her cheek, she lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut, praying that this would soon end. "Mac…I need you…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Mr. Taylor? Wake up! I need you to wake up!"

Slightly opening his eyes, Mac realized that he had passed out again. He wasn't sure how much longer he could endure this. "Ellie?"

"Yeah…Are you okay? You look really pale."

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he answered in a weak voice.

"Here, I have a granola bar in my pocket. My mom made me take it with me to eat for breakfast this morning, but I don't really like granola. So I'm going to give it to you, because you need to get some of your strength back."

Food. The idea made Mac happy and sick to his stomach at the same time. "No, I'm fine. You should eat it. I know you don't like it, but you need to get something in your system."

"No, I'm fine. I've already eaten today. Please, just eat it. You need your strength if we're going to get out of here."

After a moment of hesitation, Mac nodded and then smiled. "You're just like you're mom. Not taking no for an answer."

"Do you think she's going to find us?" she asked, as she tore open the granola bar, while trying to hide the worried look on her face.

"If I've learned anything about your mom in the past couple years, I know that when she's determined to do something, that she won't quit until it's accomplished. And I know that she's going to stop at nothing to find us."

Ellie nodded. "I hope she finds us soon."

"Me too. Me too…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So are you sure this was the girl that you saw?" Jo asked, holding up a picture of Ellie.

A middle aged woman sat before her, her legs crossed and neatly folded on her lap. As she looked at the picture closer, she adjusted her glasses and then nodded. "Yes. That was her. I'm positive."

"Okay, can you tell me who took her? What did they look like?"

"I don't know. I only saw the back of them."

"Well were they short, tall, skinny, fat, old, young, what?!"

"They were tall. But beyond that I couldn't tell you."

Jo sighed a frustrating sigh. "Okay, what kind of car was this person driving?"

"Oh who knows. It was one of those fancy sports cars that a lot of young people drive nowadays."

"Okay, well what color was it?"

"Mmm…Black I believe."

Jo and Flack looked at each other, both thinking the same thing- the black convertible that was seen dumping Lisa Adam's body.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Flack asked, pulling her aside.

Jo nodded. "The black convertible?"

"Yeah. So it's likely that Ellie and Mac were kidnapped by the same person."

"Oh my God…And he killed Lisa and Matt. And they were around the same age as Ellie. Oh my God…"

Feeling like she was going to lose it at any second, a numb Jo sat down in a nearby chair, staring into space. What was she going to do? Her daughter and her best friend were being held by a killer and a person who was all about revenge.

"What if he kills-"

"Whoa, just hold on a minute. We're not going to let that happened. Besides, if Ellie is with Mac, do you honestly think he would let anything happen to her?"

"No, but what if he's too hurt to do anything or even-"

"Hey, don't think that. We don't know anything for sure yet, alright?"

With tears in her eyes, Jo just simply nodded.

"Guys! Christine is missing," Sheldon said, running into the room.

"What?! What are you talking about?" Flack asked.

"Well she was going to the bathroom and when she didn't come back I went looking for her and found her purse on the floor and drops of blood next to it."

Shooting up from her chair, Jo turned and looked directly at him. "How much blood?"

"Well, not a lot, but still that combined with the fact that she's missing is enough to be worried about. I have Danny, Lindsay and Adam processing the scene right now, but I believe she was kidnapped just like Mac and Ellie."

"What the hell is this guy trying to prove?" Flack asked.

Worry soon turned into rage as something snapped within Jo. "Okay. Enough's enough. I don't know who the hell this guy thinks he is, but this little game of his is over. I'll be damned if he thinks that he's going to hurt any of them. I want him found and I want him found."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Yup, this is definatly blood," Lindsay said, as she tested the blood drops on the ground next to Christine's purse.

"Perfect. So now we have three people missing and no leads to go on," Danny said, as he searched for clues.

Linsday sighed. "This is getting to be one giant nightmare."

"Tell me about it."

"Hey guys, I found something!" Adam shouted from across the room.

"What?" Lindsay asked.

"I found a phone. I think it's Christine's," he replied, holding up a broken phone.

"Adam, it's broken," Lindsay pointed out.

"Come on, I've fixed worse than this before. I'll fix this and see if we can find any clues on it."

Lindsay nodded. "Okay. Just please hurry, Adam."

"I will. Don't worry."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Any luck?"

A tired Ellie briefly looked up from the ropes she was trying to cut and shook her head. "No. These ropes are really thick and this piece of glass is small. I got some of it cut, but it's still going to take me a little bit."

Trying not to let his disapointment show, Mac nodded. "It's alright. Just keep at it. We still have time."

"Are you feeling any better after eating that bar?"

"Yeah, I feel a little better," Mac lied. Between all the punishment and agnoy his body had gone through the past few days, that little bit of food made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Oh my gosh, I got one of the ropes cut!"

Mac sighed with relief. "Okay good job, Ellie. Can you get it untied the rest of the way now?"

"I don't know. I'll try."

But before she had the chance, they heard the door starting to open again. Placing the glass in Mac's hand once again, Ellie ran to her previous spot and curled up in a ball on the floor. Step by step, Will made his way down the stairs and over to Mac, who was staring at him with utter hatred in his eyes.

"You're early," Mac pointed out.

"I know. I just thought I'd come down here and help you with your decision," he replied in an eerie calm voice.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well I told you I liked blondes. And that one you have is even prettier in person."

Feeling like all the breath had gone out of him, Mac replied in a voice barely above a whisper. "What the hell does that mean?"

"See for yourself, Detective," he replied, holding out a picture.

Nervously, Mac looked down at the picture he was holding in front of him and immediately felt like he couldn't breath anymore. In the picture sat a helpless looking Christine who was tied to a chair in the same way he was, with blood running down the side of her face.

"You son of a bitch! Where is she?!"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out. And you have fifteen minutes to make your decision. Otherwise there will be a bullet hole next to that cut on her head. See you in a bit, Detective. Choose wisely."

He then turned and left an enraged Mac behind, soon making his way towards Ellie. As she looked up at him with a terrified look in her eyes, he gently grazed her cheek with his hand and smiled.

"I can't wait to have my fun with you," he said, as he stared at her.

"Get your hands off me you jerk!" she replied, smacking his hand away.

For a moment, Mac watched as they both stared at one another. Will with anger and determination in his eyes, and Ellie with the same conviction and strong will that she had gotten from her mother.

_Please, don't do anything to her, _Mac thought to himself as he watched them.

"You've got a lot of attitude for such a small girl," Will stated. "It'll be a pleasure killing you. And even if I don't, I'm definatly not going to let you go that easily."

_That's what you think, _Mac thought to himself. Fifteen minutes. A short amount of time that was always taken for granted was now going to be the most important fifteen minutes of his life. He didn't know how, but he was going to get out of there and he was taking Christine and Ellie with him, he was sure of that.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What? No way! Guys! Everybody get in here!" Adam shouted from his lab.

In a flash, Jo, Sheldon, Lindsay, Danny and Flack all ran into Adam's lab, hoping and praying that he found something that could lead them to finding Mac, Ellie and Christine.

"Please tell me you found something good," Danny replied.

"You bet your ass I did. Okay, so I was able to piece back together the phone and look through her most recent calls and the last one was from Mac," Adam informed them.

"Okay, so? How is that going to give us a lead?" Jo asked.

"Well, look at the time when the call was recived."

"It was an hour ago," Flack said, looking at the screen. "How is that possible? Isn't his phone in an evidence locker?"

"Oh my God…I had it out because I was dusting it for prints, and then I stepped away from it for a second because Lucy's school called me. And I didn't even get a chance to notice that it was gone because I was making phone calls to find someone to get her from school because she was sick and then Sheldon told us to start processing the place where Christine was kidnapped and…oh my God, this is all my fault," an upset Lindsay finished.

Immediately wrapping his arms around his wife, Danny held her as she shook with the guilt that ate her up inside. "Hey, it's okay. It's not your fault. Things happen. And this guy is good."

"Wait a minute, actually you may have just saved his life," Jo suddenly stated.

Confused, Lindsay, along with everyone else, looked at Jo, wondering what she was talking about.

"What do you mean?" Lindsay asked.

"Adam, can you trace his phone?"

"Uh yeah, I can try," he said, turning back towards the keyboard.

"If he still has his phone then we've got him," she said.

Soon everyone nodded with a sigh of relief, holding on tight to each other as Adam worked quickly to find a location on Mac's phone. Hope sooon turned into a happy accomplishment as Adam clapped his hands together with excitment.

"I got a location! It's coming from a warehouse on the three hundred block of eighth street!"

Jo smiled as she crossed her arms. "We got him."


	12. Chapter 12

"What the hell is going on here?! Why aren't we moving?!" Flack shouted as he blared his horn.

Stretching her head out the window, Jo shook her head. "There was an accident up ahead. It looks like a semi trailer tipped over. We're gonna have to find another route and fast."

"How? I can't even get turned around around in this mess."

Desperately looking around for options, Jo suddenly ran out of the car and over to the sidewalk. Curious, Flack looked on as he saw her hold up her shield and cleared everyone off the sidewalk in a hurry, soon running back and jumping in the car.

"There's your way to turn around, now GO!" she shouted, pointing towards the sidewalk.

Without a word, Flack obeyed her orders and swung the car up onto the sidewalk and down the ally beside it, going full speed with his lights blaring. "Yeah, Danny, don't go down Park Ave, there's traffic jam. Go the alternate route," he said, speaking into his phone.

Trying to hide the tears that wouldn't leave her eyes alone, Jo helplessly stared out the window as they sped along. What if they were already too late?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Those footsteps…Closer and closer they came, each one sounding louder than the last. She almost couldn't hear anything due how much her heart was pounding, but the fear made the sounds comb through her ears. After a few seconds, the door swung open and frightened tears cascaded down her cheeks as she saw him walk through it. Was this it? Was he going to kill her?

"Ah, you're awake, good. It's almost time," he said, as he got within inches of her face.

"Almost time for what?" Christine asked, trying to hide the nervousness in her voice.

"Why time to see who lives and who dies," he replied with a grin that made her tremble.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You'll see," he replied, untying her hands and feet. "We're gonna take a little walk, and if you even think about trying anything, then I'll be making all of the decisions, got it?" he finished, pointing a gun into her head.

Without a word, she nodded.

"Good. Now, let's not forget your lovely accessories," he said, putting a blindfold around her eyes.

As her world went dark, a million thoughts raced through her mind. What kind of game was he playing? Was he also the one holding Mac and Ellie? Were they already dead? Or were they too a part of his sick game?

"Time to go," he said, pulling her up by her arm.

Trying not to fall over from the dizziness that overtook her, she unwillingly followed him as he pulled her along, hoping and praying that whether he killed her or not, this nightmare would be over soon.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's it, Ellie you're doing good, just keep going," Mac said in an exhausted tone.

"What is he going to do to us?" she asked, as she cut away at his ropes.

Mac sighed. "I don't know, but we're not going to give him a chance to do anything. Ellie, I need you to do something for me. I need you to look and see if you can find me something to use as a weapon. A piece of glass, a brick, a rock, anything you can find and I need you to hurry."

"But what about the-"

"Don't worry about the rope right now, I'll work on that. Just do what I said."

"Okay," she replied, running off.

Grabbing hold of the glass, Mac continued to cut at the rope, hoping that it would soon come apart. He wasn't about to let this guy win. The days of any Harris harassing him was going to end once and for all. He killed Raymond without a blink and he wasn't going to rest until he did the same thing to his brother, too.

"I found a broken piece of wood. Will this work?" Ellie said, holding it up.

Mac smiled. "You bet."

Ellie then jumped when she heard the door slowly being unlocked, and looked at Mac with fear in her eyes. "He's here!"

"Good," Mac said holding up his now free hands. "Cause I'm ready."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, you okay?"

As she strapped her bulletproof vest on herself, Jo looked up at Flack with fear written all over her face. "What do you think? I could go in there at any minute and find my daughter and my best friend dead! How am I supposed to go on with my life if that happens?!"

Pulling her into an embrace, Flack tried to hide his own tears. He couldn't imagine life without Mac in it. He was more than a friend to him, he was his brother. How were they supposed to go on with their lives if anything happened to him?

"Look, we can't think like that. We just need to take it one step at a time. Come on, let's go."

Wiping the tears away, Jo nodded as she grabbed her gun out of her holster. "You're right. No more tears. Now it's time to play."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The door swinging open…footsteps coming down the stairs…Wait, it sounded like two sets of footsteps coming down the stairs…Or was his imagination getting the best of him?

"Wake up, Detective Taylor! It's time!"

Pretending he had been unconscious, Mac slowly opened his eyes, soon after wishing he hadn't. The other person...that blonde hair and those all too familiar lips...Was it her? "Christine?"

A blindfolded Christine lifted her head up, feeling relief, happiness and worry as soon as she heard Mac's voice. "Mac?! Is that really you?"

"Hey, no talking! This is my show, not yours! Now get over here!" he said, dragging her over to a pole. "This is your spot beautiful lady," he told her as he tied her hands behind it.

Wishing he had his gun on him, Mac tried hard to keep his composure as he watched the woman he loved being tortured right before him. _Just hold on, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, _he thought to himself.

"Okay, your turn little girl," he stated, grabbing Ellie by her hair.

Instead of screaming, Ellie surprised him by taking her shoe she was holding in her hand and hitting him square in the nose with it. As he screamed in agony, she then kicked him in his private area, making him double over on the ground. Mac then swung into action by sliding off of his chair and dragging himself across the hard cement floor, with the broken piece of board still in his hands. Noticing him, Will then whipped out his gun, but before he could turn the safety off, Mac surprised him by hitting him in his knees with the board, which brought him down to the same level as Mac. Taking a piece of rope, Mac put it around Will's neck, prompting him claw at Mac's hands as he struggled against him.

"You think it's fun to play these sick little games of yours?! Well I've got news for you, it's over. I killed your brother, and now I'm gonna do the same thing to you, you son of a bitch!"

But before he had much of a chance to do what he promised, Mac soon felt the wind being knocked out of him as Will elbowed him in his stomach, sending him down on his back side. He then felt a blow to his face as Will overpowered him, making an already weak Mac even weaker. Determined that he wasn't going to let him win, Mac fought through the blurriness that came upon him, and managed to knee Will in his stomach. After pausing for a brief second, Will just smiled as he grabbed his gun and turned off the safety, pressing it against his forehead, while his other hand was pressed against Mac's throat, making it almost impossible for him to breath.

"Nice try, Detective, but you're not going to beat me. And to think, I was going to be nice and let you save one of these fine ladies. Well, guess I'll have to decide now, seeing as how you're going to six feet under. Say hi to your partner Bill for me, and enjoy your time together in hell."

Squeezing his eyes shut as he heard Christine's screaming pleas around him, Mac prepared for the worst, knowing that his weak body wasn't going to let him do anything else. A second later he heard a gunshot, and after realizing he wasn't on the receiving end of it, he opened his eyes, only to see Will staring at him with wide eyes and blood flowing down his chest. He then collapsed on the floor next to Mac, who breathed a sigh of relief. But wait, who shot him?

Lifting his head up as much as he could, Mac nearly burst into tears when he saw Jo standing in front of him, with her gun in her hand.

"Mom!" Ellie screamed, running towards her.

Feeling the hope she thought she had lost, Jo held on to Ellie as tight as she could, grateful to have her daughter in her arms again and thankful that nothing had happened to her.

"Are you okay?" Jo asked, stroking her hair.

"I think so. I was so scared!"

"I know you were, honey. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there to protect you."

"Mom, it wasn't your fault. You can't be with me every second of the day."

"No, but you can bet your booty that I'm going to make sure you have a ride to and from school from now on."

"But mom-"

"No buts, missy. You're going to listen to me, got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"Good. I love you so much."

"I love you, too, mom."

"Guys?!"

"I found them! We're down here!" Jo shouted up to Danny.

As if a sudden switch turned on in her head, Jo suddenly noticed Mac laying on the ground in front of her, looking broken and helpless as he looked back at her.

"Oh God…! Don't worry, help is coming, Mac" she said, grabbing hold of his hand.

Struggling to breath, Mac squeezed onto Jo's hand as he looked up at her. "Christine…Where's-"

"I'm right here, Mac," Christine said, kneeling down beside him as soon as Danny freed her.

Squeezing her hand, too, Mac looked up at the beautiful angel he loved and adored more than anything in the world, grateful that nothing had happened to her. Losing one woman he had loved was hard enough, he couldn't bare the thought of losing another.

"I love you," he stated in a weak voice.

Letting the tears fall down her cheeks, she smiled as she stroked his hair. "I love you, too."

"I love you, too, Jo. And tell everyone one else that I-"

"Now Mac Taylor you just hold on. You're not going anywhere, you understand me?" Jo replied, as she tried to hold back her emotions.

"I'm so tired…"

Christine and Jo then watched in horror as Mac passed out before them, looking paler than they had ever seen him look.

"Oh God, Mac! Mac, wake up!" Christine shouted as she looked down on him.

"This is Detective Messer, I need the EMTs down here NOW!" Danny shouted into his phone.

Placing two fingers on the side of his neck, a worried Jo looked at Danny with horror written in her eyes. "Tell them to hurry…He's not breathing."


	13. Chapter 13

"One and two and three and four and…."

Christine, Ellie and Danny helplessly looked on as a frantic Jo administered CPR to an unconscious Mac. She wasn't about to wait for the EMTs to take their sweet old time getting to them and she wasn't about to lose her best friend- not now and not ever.

After the third round of administering breaths to him, she began to feel hopelessness setting in, when she continued to not feel a pulse. "You're not going anywhere, Mac Taylor you hear me? Now breath damn it!"

She then bent down and again blew every last bit of breath she had into him. For a moment she sat there trying to compose herself when her eyes caught a glimpse of the others in the room. Everyone looking so blank yet so terrified at the same time. They couldn't lose him. What would they do without him?

Wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, Jo took a deep breath as she looked up towards the ceiling. "Lord, help me. Please don't take him from us."

She then leaned down, slowly administering another breath when she was suddenly taken aback by a gasp of air, followed by several coughs from Mac, making her want to cry the greatful tears that suddenly came upon her.

"Mac!" Christine shouted, as she ran and knelt down beside him. "Can you hear me?"

For a moment, Mac layed there staring up at the ceiling. He then slowly moved his head towards Christine's direction and locked his eyes with hers. Neither one of them said a word as they both stared at one another, the love they shared showing for one another, even at a time like this.

"You're so beautiful," Mac responded in a weak voice.

Christine let her smile and tears speak for her as she squeezed his hand, followed by a kiss on his forehead. "Just hang on, help is coming."

"Oh he's not about to go anywhere," Jo chimed in.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he replied with a half smile.

"Hey guys, we're coming down!" Flack yelled, as he led the paramedics down the stairs.

"They're here, Mac. You're going to be alright," Christine shared with him, as she got out of the way.

"What happened?!" Flack asked, as worry became written on his face.

"I'm not sure, but he's in bad shape. We just need to pray that he pulls through this," Danny replied.

"He will. If anybody knows how to fight it's Mac Taylor," Jo replied.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had now been a week after the whole Will Harris saga, and everyone was finally starting to get their lives back on track. Ellie was fine with only a few cuts and bruises, while Christine had received a concussion and a two day hospital stay for observation. After a rough first couple of days of being in the hospital, Mac was finally starting to seem more like himself. He did end up having a broken leg, along with some internal bleeding, two broken ribs, and a concussion. After the trauma he went through of being shot, this almost seemed like a walk in the park.

"Hey, how's my favorite patient?" Christine asked, walking into his room.

"Eh, ready to get out of here," Mac replied as he raised his hospital bed.

"I know, but the doctors said you were through a very traumatic experience and you need time to heal. So you're going to be in here at least another week or two," she said, sitting beside him.

Mac sighed as he layed his head against Christine's chest and held her hand, something just a week ago he thought he would never be able to do again. "Well as long as you're here, it won't be that bad."

"Oh, well you know, I should probably get back to work, so I was thinking of just leaving you in the hands of Nurse Olsen over there," she replied, pointing to an older nurse.

"Very funny. She makes nuns with rulers look harmless."

As Christine chuckled, she looked down at the man she loved, soon getting lost in his eyes. She couldn't even bare to think what she would have done if he had been taken away from her. When he had been shot, it was in the beginning of their relationship, so while she was of course upset, it wouldn't have been anything compared to now. For this very day and this very moment, she knew that he was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She had never loved anyone as much as she loved him, and she was eternally grateful to the Lord above for letting him stay, so that they could have a life together.

"What, do I have something on my face?" Mac asked with a smile.

Also smiling, Christine shook her head. "No, I just- I love you so incredibly much."

"I love you too," he replied, placing his hand on her face.

"Promise me that you'll never leave me."

"I'll promise it if you will."

Christine nodded. "I promise."

Without a word, Christine leaned down and pressed her lips against Macs, who responded with great pleasure.

"Uh, am I interrupting?" Jo said, walking into his room.

Startled, they both parted from one another and smiled.

"No, not at all. Come on in, Jo," Christine replied. "Uh, actually I'm going to go get some coffee. I'll be right back," she stated, giving Mac another kiss.

"I'll be waiting," he said with a smile.

Christine flashed a sly smile in response and left the room, letting Jo and Mac have some alone time with each other.

"So, it looks like things haven't changed between you two," Jo said, sitting in the chair beside his bed.

"No, in fact, it feels different. Like I just can't let her go. When I thought that Will was going to kill her, a million things ran through my mind and all the feelings I had when I lost Claire were starting to creep up on me again. I love Christine more than anything in this world and I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

"Why Mac Taylor are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"If you think what I'm saying is I want to ask her to marry me, then yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"Ohhhh you!" Jo replied, as she got up and hugged him. "I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks. And you know, I may need some help with this."

"Anything, you name it."

"Well, I want to get her this ring," he said, showing her a picture on his phone. "However, the jeweler said he could only hold it for me for twenty-four hours and since I'm stuck here I-"

Holding up her hands, Jo got up in a flash. "Say no more. I'll be more than happy to go get it," she said, heading towards the door.

"Uh Jo, wait. I need to talk to you about something first."

"Sure. What's goin on?" she said, walking back over to him.

Hesitating, Mac looked down at his hands as he tried to find the words to say. "Jo, after what happened, I realize now more than anything that I need to treat the people that I care about with more respect and trust and quit letting my stupid pride get in the way. I should've told you right from the beginning what was going on with me instead of trying to handle things myself. You're my best friend and I don't want any secrets kept between us."

"Well you can tell me anything, Mac. You know that. Now what's going on?"

"Well, you were right. Something is wrong with me. The shooting caused me to lose oxygen to my brain, which caused me to have a condition where I can't remember simple words like shapes or colors…and I've been working on it, and I'm getting better, but I'm still not one hundred percent yet."

Compassion soon filled Jo's eyes as she grabbed his hand, knowing something like that couldn't have been easy. "Oh Mac. Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place?"

"I don't know. I just thought I could deal with it on my own. Maybe I was a bit embarrassed…I don't know."

"Mac, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone at work loves you, and we'll be there for you in a second. You should never feel like you have to hide anything from us."

"I know. I was being stupid."

"No you weren't. You just need to start believing that we're here to help you. We would never judge you."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Forget it. I'm just glad you're still here with us," she replied, leaning down and hugging him.

"Yeah about that...I wanted to thank you for saving my life."

"You're welcome. Life without you wouldn't be nearly as much fun."

"You just want someone to pick on," he replied with a smile.

"Maybe," she said with an equally big smile.

"So, how's Ellie doing?"

"Surprisingly well for all she went through. I'm just glad you were there with her. You saved her life."

"We saved each other. You have a strong daughter, Jo. And that's all thanks to you."

"Thanks, Mac. I just don't know what to do now. I mean I was scared and paranoid enough before about her being alone when I'm at work and I don't want her to think I don't trust her. It's everyone else I don't trust."

"Jo, you're a great mother. What happened was a scary thing, but if you live your life in continuous fear, it's not going to be much fun."

"I know. What do I do?"

"Just trust yourself and trust Ellie. You're both strong women and you're both survivors. You just need to take it one day at a time."

A silent Jo nodded, suddenly getting up and giving Mac a kiss on his cheek. "You're the greatest, you know that?"

"Why of course," Mac responded with a smile.

"Okay, so, I'm off to get the ring. Be back in a flash, Mr. Love," she said, walking out the door.

Mac smiled. The ordeal he had just been through now seemed to drift to the back of his mind as he thought of what was ahead for him. He had great friends and a woman who he loved more than anything. It truly was a great life and he was glad he was here to live it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Candles and romantic music filled Christine's restaurant as Mac happily prepared dinner for him and Christine. It was two weeks later, and besides his broken leg, he was fully recovered from what happened to him and was determined to move on with the next part of his life. The part of his life that made him feel more alive than he ever dreamed he could be.

"How's it going back there?" Christine shouted from the dining room.

"It's just about done," he replied, stirring the homemade Italian soup he had made.

"I see. And how do you propose on serving it?" she asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Ah, well that I may need a little help with," he replied, as he leaned on his crutches.

"Mmm. Well I'm here to help."

"I couldn't ask for better help," he stated, as he leaned in and gave her a kiss. "In fact I want us to always be there to help each other."

"We will. Nothing's ever going to change that."

"Well, I was hoping for one change."

Looking confused, Christine stepped back as she looked at him. "What do you mean? What change?"

"Well I was going to wait to do this later, but I can't," he said, taking a black box out of his pocket.

Christine's eyes widened as they landed on the box, her heart beating a mile a minute as he stared at her. "Oh God…"

"Christine, after Claire died, I honestly never thought I would fall in love again or find anyone that was special. But I was wrong. You came into my life and you opened up my heart again and showed me a love that I thought I would never find again. And I want to spend the rest of my life loving you and being there for you. So Christine, will you make me the happiest guy on earth and marry me?"

Without saying a word, she eagerly wrapped her arms around him. "Yes. Definitely yes!" she said, giving him a kiss soon after.

After a few seconds, they parted and a smiling Mac took the ring out of the box and gently placed it on her finger, followed by another kiss, a kiss that couldn't make Mac any happier if he tried. For he now had the one he was meant to be with, and to him that was all that mattered.

…**Stayed tuned for the final chapter and the wedding of the century! :-)****  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has reviewed and supported this story. You guys are awesome! And hopefully I'll be writing another one soon, so keep an eye out for it;-) So here's the final chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.:-)**

"Hey, come on no double parking! Can't you see there's a wedding going on here?!"

Mac grinned as he stood at the top of the front stairs of the church and watched as Danny ran up and down the street in his tux yelling at cabbies and directing others where to park. Among his smile, he inhaled a breath of fresh air and let his eyes take in the beautiful clear blue sky on that summer day. It was now five months after the ordeal with Will Harris and while it was certainly an experience that he would never forget, it's one that he was going to put behind him. For now was the moment he had been waiting for, and nothing was going to ruin it. Today was the day he was going to vow to spend his side by the woman he loved for the rest of his life, and nothing could make him happier.

"Hey, what are you doing outside? Isn't it bad luck to be seen before the wedding or something to that effect?" Flack asked, walking out of the church.

"That's the bride and it's only if I see her before the wedding," Mac replied with a grin.

Flack nodded with a grin as well, patting Mac's shoulder with his hand. "So how are ya doin? You nervous?"

"Mmmm…No. I can't wait to make her my wife. I love her so much that a day without her…it just doesn't make sense."

"I know what you mean. I felt the same way about Jess," Flack replied, looking down at the ground.

"Hey, listen to me. After I lost Claire, I never in a million years thought I would find someone just as special that I would fall in love with. But obviously I was wrong. Just hang in there. I'm telling you that you're gonna find someone and then I'll be out here on this same step on your wedding day, trying to calm your nerves."

"I can't wait. You're good people, Mac Taylor," he replied, giving him a hug. "Now come on, let's go get you hitched."

"You got it," he replied with a smile. "Uh maybe you can do your first best man duty though and drag Danny inside before he starts drawing blood."

"Uh no need, Lindsey is doing a pretty good job of that right now."

Looking over to where Flack was pointing, Mac couldn't help but laugh as he saw Lindsay yelling at Danny as she pulled his arm to lead him inside, while she held her long dress up with the other.

"See, that's what you have to look forward to," Flack stated.

"I can't wait," Mac replied, following them into the church.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Okay, so we have something blue, something new…Oh here! You can borrow my diamond bracelet," Jo said, slipping her bracelet off of her wrist.

"Oh Jo, I couldn't possibly," Christine replied.

"No, I want you to. I only wear it on special occasions and you're one of my best friends so I want you to wear it. Otherwise I'll just find something ugly and totally inappropriate for you to borrow."

Christine smiled and nodded as she held out her wrist. "Alright. Thank you, Jo. It's beautiful."

"Well so are you," she replied as they both looked in the vertical mirror before them.

"Thanks."

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little nervous."

"Well that's normal."

"Yeah but…"

"But what? Are you having second thoughts?"

"No, I just was thinking about some things and well, I'm just worried. What if I'm not as good of a wife as Claire was? I mean I know how important she was to Mac, and I just am afraid that he'll see that and may not want to be with me anymore."

"Christine you listen to me," Jo said, looking directly at her. "I've known Mac for awhile now and I know that when he likes or loves something that he does it with his whole heart. Yes, he loved Claire, but he loved her differently. And it's the same with you. Mac doesn't compare things or people for that matter. He loves people the way they deserved to be loved. And when I see the way he looks at you or see how he looks when he's talking about you, I see a love that's very special and it's one he feels with his whole heart. Trust me, he loves you more than anything and that's never going to change."

"You're right. I'm being silly aren't I?"

"No, you're acting like a normal bride. I'm just glad for everyone's sake that you're not like one of those bridezillas that you see on TV. Then I might have to do more to you than a pep talk."

"I imagine you would," she replied with a smile.

"You ready ladies? It's time," Lindsay said, walking in.

Christine nodded as she took a deep breath. "Yes. How do I look?"

"You look beautiful," Lindsay replied.

"I agree. You're breath taking," Jo said. "Now let's go get you married."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shimmery ribbons and beautiful roses filled the chapel as the music began to play. Mac, Flack, Danny, Sheldon, Adam and Sid smiled as they stood up at the alter and watched Lucy slowly make her way down the aisle in her pink poofy dress, throwing flower petals left and right. Following her was her mother, giving a sly smile directed towards Danny, who gave an equally just as big smile back.

"Just think, someday you'll be at a wedding, watching your wife and daughter making their way up the aisle," Danny whispered to Mac.

"I hope so," Mac replied with a smile.

Next it was two of Christine's cousins followed by Jo, who gave Mac a smile and a wink before she took her place up the alter. Mac smiled, almost not believing that this was happening to him. Just thinking about never seeing Christine or any of his friends again when he was Will's prisoner was enough to make him want to have died. But now he was given a second chance, and a chance that he wasn't ever going to take advantage of and a chance that he was going to embrace with his whole heart.

"_Now that the wait is over and love has finally showed her my way…Marry me…Today and every day…Marry me…"_

Mac's heart fluttered within his chest as the music started to play and Christine entered the doorway in her beautiful white gown. Her beautiful golden hair hung back in a loose bun with curls cascading down the sides of her face, lighting up her beautiful face that lit up the room with her equally as beautiful smile, which made Mac's heart melt a million times over.

Then the moment came when she finally made her way up to the man she loved, and they intertwined their hands together as their eyes looked into each other's souls that they were soon joining together as one.

The preacher then opened his bible and smiled as he looked out at everyone. "Family and friends, we are gathered here today to witness the blessed union of Mac Taylor and Christine Whitney. As we watch them pledge their lives to one another, let us not forget how special love is and that when you find it, it's something that must be treasured and never taken for granted. So let us now begin. Do you, Mac Taylor, take Christine to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish from this day forward?"

Without hesitation, Mac stared at her and replied. "I do."

"Christine, do you take Mac to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish from this day forward?"

Trying to hold back her happy tears, Christine nodded. "I do."

"Now we shall listen as Mac and Christine have written their own vows that they would now like to share with you."

Pulling her hand up to his chest, Mac stared deep into her eyes as he started to speak. "Christine, over the years I stopped believing that I was going to find true love again. I lived my life doing nothing but work because I thought that was going to be my life. But then you walked into my life one day and proved me completely wrong. You woke up the part of me that I hadn't felt in a long time. You made my heart come alive and you saved my life. I know without a doubt that you're the one I'm meant to be with. And if you let me, I'll prove day after day for the rest of our lives how much you mean to me and I will love you forever and for always."

Wiping the tears that cascaded down her cheek, Christine stared back at him as she then began her vows. "Mac, you've always been there for me. You were there for me when my brother died and you have continued to be there for me a countless number of times since then. I used to sit and watch all these romantic movies or see couples in love together out in the world and I always thought that a love like that was almost impossible to find. But then you came back into my life and showed me that it wasn't. And you've made me the happiest girl in the world and I can't wait for us to grow old together. I love you."

"Oh please tell me you have an extra tissue," a teary-eyed Lindsay whispered to Jo.

Wiping her eyes with one, Jo reached in-between her cleavage and pulled out an extra tissue. "Of course, what do you think I am, a robot?"

"Some beautiful words indeed," the preacher continued. "May we have the rings, please?"

Mac and Christine turned to Jo and Flack, taking the rings from them, then eagerly waiting to place them on each other's fingers.

"Mac, place this ring on Christine's finger and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed."

Placing the ring on her finger, he repeated the preacher's words. "With this ring, I thee wed."

"Now Christine, I want you to place your ring on Mac's finger and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed."

Slipping the ring on his finger, she also repeated his words. "With this ring, I thee wed."

"Then if there are no objections, with the power invested in me and by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," he finished, looking at Mac.

Eagerly, Mac wrapped his arms around her as they both kissed each other passionately as applause broke out.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor."

More applause erupted in the church as Mac and Christine held hands and walked down the aisle together, followed by the rest of the gang.

Once they were in the lobby, Mac pulled her close to him as they engaged in another passionate kiss, both of them feeling the happiness that neither of them had felt for a long time.

Slowly parting from each other, they smiled at one another, both so happy and both so care free from any worries that they had before now.

"I love you, Mrs. Taylor," Mac said as he gently brushed her hair from her face.

"I love you too, Mr. Taylor. And I can't wait to start our lives together."

"Me neither."

As they began to kiss each other once more, they were soon interrupted by Christine's aunt yelling at her to come say hello to some of her relatives she hadn't seen for quite some time. Groaning, she looked up at Mac who responded with a smile and a kiss.

"Go. We'll have plenty of chances to be alone after this."

"Alright, but don't go too far my sweet prince."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

She then gave him another peck on his lips before walking over to a group of her family members who were all standing in a bunch together, staring towards Mac's direction.

"Well Mac Taylor getting married. It's about time."

Confused, Mac turned around and nearly fell backwards when he saw none other than Stella standing before him, with a happy grin on her face.

"Stella?! What are you doing here?" he asked as he gave her a hug.

"Well you sent me an invite didn't you?"

"Well yeah, but I thought you might have been too busy to come."

"Come on, Mac. Do you honestly think I was going to miss out on you getting married? I know we haven't seen each other for a while, but I still consider you one of my best friends. And she seems like a great person. I'm very happy for you."

"Thank you. I'm glad you could make it," he replied, giving her a kiss on her cheek. "So how's New Orleans treating you?"

"Good. It's different being in charge. Now I know how you feel."

"Well it certainly comes with its up and downs."

"Yeah. Speaking of, I heard about you being shot."

Mac hung his head down and slightly nodded. "Yeah, it was quite an ordeal. But I'm going to be alright."

"Mac, I'm so sorry. I would've been here if I could."

"It's fine don't worry about it. You have a busy job and a busy life, Stella."

"Yeah, but I should've made time to….I mean I know I've been away for awhile, but I still care about you. I would've been devastated if something had happened to you."

"Don't worry. I don't plan on going anywhere, trust me."

"Good. Otherwise I might have to hurt you," she replied with a grin.

"I know you would," he replied, giving her a hug.

"Mac Taylor, you'd better be about done with that hug cause I'm next!" a happy Jo stated as she made her way up to them. "Oh, hi…I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Mac shook his head. "No not at all. Jo, I'd like for you to meet my friend and former partner, Stella Bonasera."

Jo's mouth dropped open as she held out her hand. "Oh! Well hi, it's nice to finally meet you. Mac's told me a lot about you. It's nice to finally put a name with the face."

Stella nodded as she accepted Jo's hand and shook it. "Well it's nice to meet you, too. Who are you?" she asked with a curious grin.

"Oh I'm sorry. I'm Jo Danville. Mac's current partner. Oh but I don't want you thinking I replaced you. I couldn't even imagine doing that."

"Oh no, it's okay. It was my choice to leave. And I hear that you keep him on his toes anyway, which is a good thing."

"And how, may I ask, do you know that?" a curious Mac asked.

"Hey just because I left, doesn't mean I've stopped talking to everyone. And apparently you've been telling stories about me as well," Stella replied, raising an eyebrow towards Mac.

"Hey, they were all good things," Mac replied.

"Hm. You know, I could tell you quite a few stories about him as well."

"Oh dish it sister! And I may have to catch you up on some things since you left," Jo said.

"Sounds good to me. Come on, we'll ride over to the banquet hall together and we'll talk," Stella said, linking her arm inside Jo's.

"Boy aren't you in trouble," Danny said, coming up to Mac. "An old and new partner getting together is almost as bad as your current girlfriend and ex-girlfriend getting together. So have fun with that," he said, giving him a pat on the back, before he walked away.

Mac chuckled as he watched Stella and Jo talking to one another, soon being joined by the rest of the CSI crew, who were beyond thrilled to see Stella again.

As he watched them, he suddenly felt something he hadn't felt in a long time- peace. It was something he hadn't felt since before Claire had died, and something he had learned to live without. But now as he watched his best friends and the people who had become his family over the years, he realized he had had it all along. And now he also had a beautiful wife that he loved with his whole heart. Life was indeed good.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Mmmm, that was amazing."

"That's because you're amazing."

As Mac and Christine both layed under a blanket on the sand, they felt nothing but happiness wash over them as the sound of the ocean waves accompanied their love making. It had been a long over due promise, but they had finally made it to their beach, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

"Can I ask you something?" Christine asked, as she gently caressed Mac's chest with her hand.

"You can ask me anything you want," he replied as he kissed the top of her head.

"Where do you think we'd be in our lives if we hadn't gotten together?"

Rubbing his hand up and down her arm, Mac pressed his lips together as he thought about the question. "Well…I probably would be doing what I always did and work til my eyes bled."

"Oh you mean you don't do that now?" she replied with a smile.

"No, because now I actually have something to look forward to when I come home. And I know we were meant to be together. I don't even want to think about what my life would be like without you in it."

Lifting her head up, she smiled as she stared into those green eyes she so adored, and knew that what he said was indeed true. She knew they were meant to find each other, and she was glad that they had.

"I couldn't even imagine mine without you either. I love you so much."

"I love you, too," he replied, pulling her into a kiss.

Soon they got lost in each other, as the world around them seemed to disappear. They both had quite a few ordeals to hurdle for them to have gotten where they were, but it was hurdles that they would jump over again and again if it meant getting to where they were now. For now was the moment they had both longed for, and a moment that they never wanted to let go of. And they knew that no matter what happened to them in the future that they both had the love they shared to carry them through it. Forever and always.


End file.
